Marcella

oors which shut off the central hall of Mellor from the outer vestibule, she saw something white lying on the old cut and disused billiard table

ok up a sheaf of cards

scount Maxwell," "Mr. R

the Misses Winterbour

's-all perfe

on her. "Of course it is

ride fighting with her pleasure. There was something else in her feeling too-the exultation

a, is th

yes to distinguish her daughter among the shadows of the great bare place. A dark day was drawing to its close, and there was little light left in the hall, except in

same gleam her mother saw he

ters?" s

note," and she pounced upon an envelope she had

took note and cards f

hed her with

cards, slowly putting them d

he note!" Marcella cou

e. Marcella dared not look over her. There was a dignity about her mother's lightest action, about every movement

t, and then hande

cold tone, and turning, she went back to the drawi

take luncheon at the Court on the following Friday. The note was courteously and kindly worded. "We should be so glad," said

ought Marcella anxiously. "T

to put it down; and her eyes, which evidently saw nothing, were turned to the window, the brows frowning. The look of suffering for an instant was unmistakable; then

your tea," she said, "the

e it, put the logs with which it was piled toget

, mamma?" she asked quick

se. Then Mrs. B

f her, and it has never occurred to her to call. Now she calls and asks us to luncheon in the same aft

an to occur to her for the first time that in her wild i

am

es

erybody here was going to cut us! Papa told me that

" said Mrs. Boyce, quic

d and met the flash

d so horrid to feel everybody standing aloof-we were walking tog

nt to Lady Winterbourne-they were compassionate-and there are

y fixed on her offending self; she shrank before the proud reserve expressed in every l

shut off from everybody-joining with nobody-with no friendly feelings or soci

ad certainly

se have guessed it long ago-that society does not look kindly on us-and has its reasons. I do not deny in the least that it has its reasons. I do not accuse anybody, and resent nothing. But th

fire which had for once wholly swept away her satiric c

papa too,-through us. Some of them wish to be kind"-she added insistently, thinking of Aldous Raeburn's words and expression as he bent to her at the gate-"I know they do. And if we can't

rs almost piteously on

e tea-pot. Then with a delicate handkerchief she ru

deal on health-mine is quite serviceable in the way of excuses. I will try and do you no harm, Marcella. If you have chosen your line and wish to make frie

th dismay and a yearning

never go out w

ormal filial relation. But Mrs. Boyce did not waver. She had long learnt perhaps to regard Marcel

r impression, my dear, for I have really forgotten how to behave. Those cards shall be properly returned, of course. For the rest-let no one dist

irl, whose power over the world about her had never extend

at the logs and the shower of sparks they made as she m

e will be nothing unsurmountable in your way. One piece of advice let me give you. Don't be too grateful to Miss Raeburn, or anybody else! You take great interest in your

elations, for they were fashionable and important folk, but no one of them had crossed the Boyces' threshold since the old London days, wherein Marcella could still dimly remember the tall forms of certain Merritt uncles, and even a stately lady in a white

nion with a new and painful curiosity. The tacit assumption of many years with her had been that her mother was a dry limited person, clever and determined in small ways, that affected her own family, but on the whole characterless as compared with other people of str

rose and put the sc

in, I suppose. Yes, I

her a good deal of trouble out of doors. Marcella wore "art serges" and velveteens; Mrs. Boyce attired herself in soft and costly silks, generally black, closely and fashionably made, and completed by various fanciful and distinguished trifles-rings, an old chatelaine, a diamo

ome scolding of William, and finally Mr. Boyce entered, tir

had supplied him with tea, and he was beginning to dry by the fire. He was feeling ill

yce, calmly, blowing out th

hey should have done their calling long ago. There's no grace in it

er heart, an angry straining against circumstance and fate; yet at the same time a mounting voice of natural affection, an understanding at once sad and new, which paralys

im as she took his cup; "don't you thin

waste of time and shoe leather. I shan't go out any more. The place has been clean swept by some of those brut

e, interrogatively. "I

burns' candidate, has got a great start; this young man will want all his time to catch him up. I like him. I won't vote for him; but I'll see fair play. I've asked him to come to tea

ning under his nervous determination to assert himself-to hold up h

imes came into his eyes as he pictured himself restored to society-partly by his own efforts, partly, no doubt, by the charms and good looks of his wife and daughter-forgiven for their sake, and for the sake also of that store of virtue he had so laboriously accumulated since that long-past catastrophe. Would not most men have gone to the bad altogether, after such a lapse? He, on the contrary, had recovered himself, had neither drunk nor squandered, nor deserted his wife and child. These things, if the truth were known, were indeed due rather to a certain lack of physical energy and vita

xwell and his companion had bestowed upon him, Richard Boyce had passed his afternoon in resenting and brooding over the cold civility of it. So these were the terms he was to be on with them-the deuce take them and their pharisaical airs! If all the truth were known,

an entirely safe one for the Maxwell nominee. Young Wharton, on the contrary, was making way every day, and, what with securing Aldous's own seat in the next division, and helping old Dodgson in this, Lord Maxwell and his grandson h

s and faded pictures, and the chair covers in Turkey-red twill against the blue, which still remained to bear witness at once to the domestic economies and the decorative ideas of old Robert Boyce-conscious also of the figures on either side of her, and of her own quick-beating youth betw

*

s the door closed behind her, Mrs. Boyce held out Miss Raebu

e to lunch," she said. "I am no

ght, and it produced the most

ely, rousing himself for a moment to attac

ng out," she said quietly, "a

aising his voice, "that you have never meant to

. Why should we change our ways? We have done very w

e fire. The sight of her delicate blanched face had in some respects a more and

o her to go about without her parents? People will on

itations to plead in the way of health. She need never give offence if she has decent wits. It will be understoo

al light gentleness, b

e to the purpose," he said, with grim inconsequenc

and went

ot change your things directly you come

rings, almost touched him. A passionate hunger leapt within him. She would stoop and kiss him if he asked her; he knew t

omfort lost its

m," he said, rising. "There-don't

head upon them, and so stood silent for long. There was no sound audible in the room, or from the house outside. And in t

*

late that night brushing her hair before her dimly-lighted and r

herself. Ever since Aldous Raeburn's hesitating revelations, she had been liable to this sudden invasion of

e not to be undone by the acts of another, even a father, made her soon

r. Raeburn said-probably a great deal more. Poor, poor mamma! But, all the same, there i

y looking at her own black and white

been very prompt in her service. There could be no q

ous that he had not from the beginning given her much trouble. But the common report of him made his recent manner towards her, this last action of his, the more significant. Even the Harden

edents. He knew all-at any rate, more than she did-and y

unk upon its knees and hid its face for tender humbleness and requital. Marcella only look

s, to make a mark for herself among women, and to make it in the most romantic and yet natural way, without what had always seemed to her the s

elp for it. Those whom she would make her friends would know very well for what purpose she wanted money, power, and the support of such a man, and such a marriage. Her modern realism played with t

m above her head amid her clouds of

the money! We would have a parish committee to deal with the charities-oh! the Hardens would come in. The old people should have their pensions as of right. No hopeless ol

the figures and incidents of the afternoo

ourse, should be to teach them to stand on their own feet, to know themselves as men. But naturally they would be grateful, they would let themselves be led. Intelligence and enthusiasm give power, and ought to give it-power for good. No doubt, under Socialism, there will be less s

g hands of the Hurd children round her knees, and through them, symboli

p when her own words to Aldou

e charge of other people's li

tle matter. She fell asleep cradled in dreams. A