The Beloved Woman

was the subject of a rather unusual talk

ire. Her little bedroom beyond was softly lighted, the white bed turned down, and the religious books she always read before

so sadly and suddenly become no marriage at all, was not as one-sided as the world might have suspected. Her clear, dispassionate viewpoint and her dignified companionship were not wifehood, but they were dear and valuable to him none the less, a part of his life that he would not have spared. And he could still admire her, too, not only for the exquisite clearness of her intellect, her French and Italian, her knowledge of countries and affairs, but physically-the clear,

re her fire, and she watched him for

nner?" she

in to hear Hendrick's speech. The Vice-President was the

ther," Mrs. Liggett said, sympathetically. "I'm sorry it wa

ocked hands dropped between his

s," he said, deliberately, "and she was

apprehensively, but s

Chris? Leslie

moiré surface reflectively, and selected a smoke. "She was tired-she'd been out in the snow-Leslie had gone off

as sudden, and

s a sort of maid or travelling companion of Mama's. We calle

remember abou

ith Mama-and I remember that she came back, and she used to come see me at school, for Mama, and once sh

answer, and she re

e end of his cigarette into the fire,

a loss. To her this had

her, young girl about ei

with a sort of superb indifferenc

t frown that many of life's problems brought to his handsome

humouredly. "But I'll tell you exactly what oc

sep

expecting the lady, and that he was to bring her upstairs. With her came this girl-I can't remember her name-but it w

an into the hall, and it seems-she's all righ

anxiously, with an

o his narrative, "Leslie cried, and I suppose there was a scene. Mrs. Sheridan and the

ge L

n Westchester with his daugh

hy did she wan

there, as it happened, and just before eight Hendrick and I went in. I coul

s her explan

her laug

l of it! It would be funny if it wasn't that she's taking it so har

worriedly, "what do you ma

ndo a great wrong-and that I must help her-and not ask any questions-she

Alice said, at an ut

't say,"

is, she must have s

st make it up to this girl, and she w

er will!" Al

imsically at his wife. "As I remember my father-in-law," he said, "it seems to me impro

relief at the absurdity. "No, but it might be some

was money, and she said no, said it positively and repeatedly. Then I asked her if she would like this Sheridan woman

ed, "she gets frightfully worked up over nothing, or almost nothing. It's quite possible that when Kate recalled old times to her she suddenly wished that she had done more for Kate-something like that. She

rget our rushing into the house like maniacs, not knowing what had happened to Leslie

ice laughed. "Chris, d

onsi

not hungry, dear

w that you asked me, the dinner had reached the point of ice-cream in a paper tub, as I sat down," he remembered. "You're a little miracle

is, not

en his seat at the piano, now, and was looking at her across it, w

u'll promise to stop playing th

prom

ation. Fifteen minutes later she had to scold him to bring him to the fire again, and to the smoking little supper. While Alice

hristopher was going back to the piano for an

worried about thi

her father was an employee who did this or that or the other-Mrs. Sheridan's husband was employed by your father at the time of his death, by the way-why, it's easy enough to pay the claim, whatever it is! The girl seems to have made a n

nothing wrong!" Ali

's counsel, refreshed in body by the impromptu supper, and ready for the mu