Page 81 (1/1)

"I've been a ," said Mrs Wilkins

"A what?" asked Mrs Arbuthnot, incredulous of her hearing

"All this co him in that dreary place while I rollick in heaven He had planned to take me to Italy for Easter himself Did I tell you?"

"No," said Mrs Arbuthnot; and indeed she had discouraged talk about husbands Whenever Lotty had begun to blurt out things she had swiftly changed the conversation One husband led to another, in conversation as well as in life, she felt, and she could not, she would not, talk of Frederick Beyond the bare fact that he was there, he had not been mentioned Mellersh had had to be mentioned, because of his obstructiveness, but she had carefully kept hi outside the limits of necessity

"Well, he did," said Mrs Wilkins "He had never done such a thing in his life before, and I was horrified Fancy--just as I had planned to come to it myself"

She paused on the path and looked up at Rose

"Yes," said Rose, trying to think of so else to talk about

"Now you see why I say I've been aHe had planned a holiday in Italy withhim at home I think," she went on, her eyes fixed on Rose's face, "Mellersh has every reason to be both angry and hurt"

Mrs Arbuthnot was astonished The extraordinary quickness hich, hour by hour, under her very eyes, Lotty beca into so affectionate about Mellersh--Mellersh, who only thattheir feet into the sea, had seeauze That was only that ; and by the tiot hith And now, a fewthat he had every reason to be angry with her and hurt, and that she herself had been--the language was unusual, but it did express real penitence--a

Rose stared at her astonished If she went on like this, soon a niht be expected round her head, was there already, if one didn't knoas the sun through the tree-trunks catching her sandy hair

A great desire to love and be friends, to love everybody, to be friends with everybody, seeoodness Rose's own experience was that goodness, the state of being good, was only reached with difficulty and pain It took a long tiet to it, or, if for a flashing instant one did, it was only for a flashing instant Desperate perseverance was needed to struggle along its path, and all the as dotted with doubts Lotty siot rid of her impetuousness It had merely taken another direction She was now ioodness so violently? Wouldn't there be an equally violent reaction?