miss ley returned to england at the end of february. unlike the most of her compatriots, she did not go abroad to see the friends with whom she spent much time at home; and though bella and herbert field were at naples, mrs. murray in rome, she took care systematically to avoid them. rather was it her practice to cultivate chance acquaintance, for she thought the english in foreign lands betrayed their idiosyncrasies with a pleasant and edifying frankness; in venice, for example, or at capri, the delectable isle, romance might be seized, as it were, in the act, and all manner of oddities were displayed with a most diverting effrontery: in those places you meet middle-aged pairs, uncertainly related, whose vehement adventures startled the decorum of a previous generation; you discover how queer may be the most conventional, how ordinary the most eccentric. miss ley, with her discreet knack for extracting confidence, after her own staid fashion enjoyed herself immensely; she listened to the strange confessions of men who for their souls’ sake had abandoned the greatness of the world, and now spoke of their past zeal with indulgent irony, of women who for love had been willing to break down the very pillars of heaven, and now shrugged their shoulders in amused recollection of passion long since dead.

“well, what have you fresh to tell me?” asked frank, having met miss ley at victoria, when he sat down to dinner in old queen street.

“nothing much. but i’ve noticed that when pleasure has exhausted a man he’s convinced that he has exhausted pleasure; then he tells you gravely that nothing can satisfy the human heart.”

but frank had more important news than this, for jenny, a week before, was delivered of a still-born child, and had been so ill that it was thought she could not recover; now, however, the worst was over, and if nothing untoward befell, she might be expected slowly to regain health.

“how does basil take it?” asked miss ley.

“he says very little; he’s grown silent of late, but i’m afraid he’s quite heart-broken. you know how enormously he looked forward to the baby.”

“d’you think he’s fond of his wife?”

“he’s very kind to her. no one could have been gentler than he after the catastrophe. i think she was the more cut up of the two. you see, she looked upon it as the reason of their marriage—and he’s been doing his best to comfort her.”

“i must go down and see them. and now tell me about mrs. castillyon.”

“i haven’t set eyes on her for ages.”

miss ley observed frank with deliberation. she wondered if he knew of the affair with reggie bassett, but, though eager to discuss it, would not risk to divulge a secret. in point of fact, he was familiar with all the circumstances, but it amused him to counterfeit ignorance that he might see how miss ley guided the conversation to the point she wanted. she spoke of the dean of tercanbury, of bella and her husband, then, as though by chance, mentioned reggie; but the twinkling of frank’s eyes told her that he was laughing at her stratagem.

“you brute!” she cried, “why didn’t you tell me all about it, instead of letting me discover the thing by accident?”

“my sex suggests to me certain elementary notions of honour, miss ley.”

“you needn’t add priggishness to your other detestable vices. how did you know they were carrying on in this way?”

“the amiable youth told me. there are very few men who can refrain from boasting of their conquests, and certainly reggie isn’t one of them.”

“you don’t know hugh kearon, do you? he’s had affairs all over europe, and the most notorious was with a royal princess who shall be nameless; i think she would have bored him to death if he hadn’t been able to flourish ostentatiously a handkerchief with a royal crown in the corner and a large initial.”

miss ley then gave her account of the visit to rochester, and certainly made of it a very neat and entertaining story.

“and did you think for a moment that this would be the end of the business?” asked frank, ironically.

“don’t be spiteful because i hoped for the best.”

“dear miss ley, the bigger blackguard a man is, the more devoted are his lady-loves. it’s only when a man is decent and treats women as if they were human beings that he has a rough time of it.”

“you know nothing about these things, frank,” retorted miss ley. “pray give me the facts, and the philosophical conclusions i can draw for myself.”

“well, reggie has a natural aptitude for dealing with the sex. i heard all about your excursion to rochester, and went so far as to assure him that you wouldn’t tell his mamma. he perceived that he hadn’t cut a very heroic figure, so he mounted the high horse, and, full of virtuous indignation, for a month took no notice whatever of mrs. castillyon. then she wrote most humbly, begging him to forgive her; and this, i understand, he graciously did. he came to see me, flung the letter on the table, and said: ‘there, my boy, if any one asks you, say that what i don’t know about women ain’t worth knowing.’ two days later he appeared with a gold cigarette-case!”

“what did you say to him?”

“one of these days you’ll come the very devil of a cropper.”

“you showed wisdom and emphasis. i hope with all my heart, he will.”

“i don’t imagine things are going very smoothly,” proceeded frank. “reggie tells me she leads him a deuce of a life, and he’s growing restive; it appears to be no joke to have a woman desperately in love with you. and then he’s never been on such familiar terms with a person of quality, and he’s shocked by her vulgarity; her behaviour seems often to outrage his sense of decorum.”

“isn’t that like an englishman! he cultivates propriety even in the immoral.”

then miss ley asked frank about himself, but they had corresponded with diligence, and he had little to tell; the work at saint luke’s went on monotonously, lectures to students three times a week and out-patients on wednesday and saturday; people were beginning to come to his consulting-room in harley street, and he looked forward, without great enthusiasm, to the future of a fashionable physician.

“and are you in love?”

“you know i shall never permit my affections to wander so long as you remain single,” he answered, laughing.

“beware i don’t take you at your word and drag you by the hair of your head to the altar. have i no rival?”

“well, if you press me, i will confess.”

“monster! what is her name?”

“bilharzia holmatobi.”

“good heavens!”

“it’s a parasite i’m studying. i think authorities are all wrong about it; they’ve not got its life-history right, and the stuff they believe about the way people catch it is sheer footle.”

“it doesn’t sound frightfully thrilling to me, and i’m under the impression you’re only trumping it up to conceal some scandalous amour with a ballet-girl.”

miss ley’s visit to barnes seemed welcome neither to jenny nor to basil, who looked harassed and unhappy, and only with a visible effort assumed a cheerful manner when he addressed his wife. jenny was still in bed, very weak and ill, but miss ley, who had never before seen her, was surprised at her great beauty; her face, whiter than the pillows against which it rested, had a very touching pathos, and, notwithstanding all that had gone before, that winsome, innocent sweetness which has occasioned the comparison of english maidens to the english rose. the observant woman noticed also the painful, questioning anxiety with which jenny continually glanced at her husband, as though pitifully dreading some unmerited reproach.

“i hope you like my wife,” said basil, when he accompanied miss ley downstairs.

“poor thing! she seems to me like a lovely bird imprisoned by fate within the four walls of practical life, who should by rights sing careless songs under the open skies. i’m afraid you’ll be very unkind to her.”

“why?” he asked, not without resentment.

“my dear, you’ll make her live up to your blue china teapot. the world might be so much happier if people wouldn’t insist on acting up to their principles.”

mrs. bush had been hurriedly sent for when jenny’s condition seemed dangerous, but, in her distress and excitement, she had sought solace in basil’s whiskey-bottle to such an extent that he was obliged to beg her to return to her own home. the scene was not edifying. surmising an alcoholic tendency, kent, two or three days after her arrival, locked the side-board and removed the key. but in a little while the servant came to him.

“if you please, sir, mrs. bush says, can she ’ave the whiskey; she’s not feelin’ very well.”

“i’ll go to her.”

mrs. bush sat in the dining-room with folded hands, doing her utmost to express on a healthy countenance maternal anxiety, indisposition, and ruffled dignity; she was not vastly pleased to see her son-in-law instead of the expected maid.

“oh, is that you, basil?” she said; “i can’t find the sideboard key anywhere, and i’m that upset i must ’ave a little drop of something.”

“i wouldn’t if i were you, mrs. bush. you’re much better without it.”

“oh, indeed!” she answered, bristling. “p’raps you know more about me inside feelings than i do myself. i’ll just trouble you to give me the key, young man, and look sharp about it. i’m not a woman to be put upon by any one, and i tell you straight.”

“i’m very sorry, but i think you’ve had quite enough to drink. jenny may want you, and you would be wise to keep sober.”

“d’you mean to insinuate that i’ve ’ad more than i can carry?”

“i wouldn’t go quite so far as that,” he answered, smiling.

“thank you for nothing,” cried mrs. bush indignantly. “and i should be obliged if you wouldn’t laugh at me, and i must say it’s very ’eartless with me daughter lying ill in her bedroom. i’m very much upset and i did think you’d treat me like a lady, but you never ’ave, mr. kent—no, not even the first time i come here. oh, i ’aven’t forgot, so don’t you think i ’ave—a sixpenny ’alfpenny teapot was good enough for me, but when your lady-friend come in out pops the silver, and i don’t believe for a moment it’s real silver. blood’s all very well, mr. kent, but what i say is, give me manners. you’re a nice young feller, you are, to grudge me a little drop of spirits when me poor daughter’s on her death-bed. i wouldn’t stay another minute in this ’ouse if it wasn’t for ‘er.”

“i was going to suggest it would be better if you returned to your happy home in crouch end,” answered basil, when the good woman stopped to take breath.

“were you, indeed! well, we’ll just see what jenny ’as to say to that. i suppose my daughter is mistress in ’er own ’ouse.”

mrs. bush started to her feet and made for the door, but basil stood with his back against it.

“i can’t allow you to go to her now. i don’t think you’re in a fit state.”

“d’you think i’m going to let you prevent me? get out of my way, young man.”

basil, more disgusted than out of temper, looked at the angry creature with a cold scorn which was not easy to stomach.

“i’m sorry to hurt your feelings, mrs. bush, but i think you’d better leave this house at once. fanny will put your things together. i’m going to jenny’s room, and i forbid you to come to it. i expect you to be gone in half an hour.”

he turned on his heel, leaving mrs. bush furious but intimidated. she was so used to have her own way that opposition took her aback, and basil’s manner did not suggest that he would easily suffer contradiction. but she made up her mind, whatever the consequences, to force her way into jenny’s room, and there set out her grievance. she had not done repeating to herself what she would say when the servant entered to state that, according to her master’s order, she had packed mrs. bush’s things. jenny’s mother started up indignantly, but pride forbade her to let the maid see she was turned out.

“quite right, fanny! this isn’t the ’ouse that a lady would stay in, and i pity you, my dear, for ’aving a master like my son-in-law. you can tell ’im with my compliments that ’e’s no gentleman.”

jenny, who was asleep, woke at the slamming of the front-door.

“what’s that?” she asked.

“your mother has gone away, dearest. d’you mind?”

she looked at him quickly, divining from knowledge of her parent’s character that some quarrel had occurred and anxious to see that basil was not annoyed. she gave him her hand.

“no, i’m glad. i want to be alone with you. i don’t want any one to come between us.”

he bent down and kissed her, and she put her arms round his neck.

“you’re not angry with me because the baby died?”

“my darling, how could i be?”

“say that you don’t regret having married me.”

jenny, realising by now that basil had married her only on account of the child, was filled with abject terror; his interests were so different from hers (and she had but gradually come to understand how great was the separation between them) that the longed-for son alone seemed able to preserve to her basil’s affection. it was the mother he loved, and now he might bitterly repent his haste, for it seemed she had forced marriage upon him by false pretenses. the chief tie that bound them was severed, and though with meek gratitude accepting the attentions suggested by his kindness, she asked herself with aching heart what would happen on her recovery.

time passed, and jenny, though ever pale and listless, grew strong enough to leave her room. it was proposed that in a little while she should go with her sister for a month to brighton; basil’s work prevented him from leaving london for long, but he promised to run down for the week-end. one afternoon he came home in high spirits, having just received from his publishers a letter to say that his book had found favour and would be issued in the coming spring. it seemed the first step to the renown he sought. he found james bush, his brother-in-law, seated with jenny, and, in his elation, greeted him with unusual cordiality; but james lacked his usual facetious flow of conversation, and wore indeed a hang-dog air, which at another time would have excited basil’s attention. he took his leave at once, and then basil noticed that jenny was much disturbed. though he knew nothing for certain, he had an idea that the family of bush came to his wife when they were in financial straits, but from the beginning had decided that such inevitable claims must be satisfied; he preferred, however, to ignore the help which jenny gave, and, when she asked for some small sum beyond her allowance, handed it without question.

“why was jimmie here at this hour?” he asked, carelessly, thinking him bound on some such errand. “i thought he didn’t leave his office till six.”

“oh, basil, something awful has happened! i don’t know how to tell you; he’s sacked.”

“i hope he doesn’t want us to keep him,” answered basil, coldly. “i’m very hard up this year, and all the money i have i want for you.”

jenny braced herself for a painful effort. she looked away and her voice trembled.

“i don’t know what’s to be done. he’s got into trouble. unless he can find a hundred and fifteen pounds in a week, his firm are going to prosecute.”

“what on earth d’you mean, jenny?”

“oh, basil, don’t be angry! i was so ashamed to tell you, i’ve been hiding it for a month; but now i can’t any more. something went wrong with his accounts.”

“d’you mean to say he’s been stealing?” asked basil, sternly; and a feeling of utter horror and disgust came over him.

“for god’s sake, don’t look at me like that!” she cried, for his eyes, his firm-set mouth, made her feel a culprit confessing on her own account some despicable crime. “he didn’t mean to be dishonest. i don’t exactly understand, but he can tell you how it all was. oh, basil, you won’t let him be sent to prison! couldn’t he have the money instead of my going away?”

basil sat down at his desk to think out the matter, and, resting his face thoughtfully on his hands, sought to avoid jenny’s fixed, appealing gaze; he did not want her to see the consternation, the abject shame, with which her news oppressed him. but all the same she saw.

“what are you thinking about, basil?”

“nothing particular. i was wondering how to raise the money.”

“you don’t think because he’s my brother i must be tarred with the same brush?”

he looked at her without answering; it was certainly unfortunate that his wife’s mother should drink more than was seemly and her brother have but primitive ideas about property.

“it’s not my fault,” she cried, with bitter pain, interrupting his silence. “don’t think too hardly of me.”

“no, it’s not your fault,” he answered, with involuntary coldness. “you must go away to brighton all the same, but i’m afraid it means no holiday in the summer.”

he wrote a cheque and then a letter to his bank begging them to advance a hundred pounds on securities they held.

“there he is,” cried jenny, hearing a ring. “i told him to come back in half an hour.”

basil got up.

“you’d better give the cheque to your brother at once. say that i don’t wish to see him.”

“isn’t he to come here any more, basil?”

“that is as you like, jenny. if you wish, we’ll pretend he was unfortunate rather than—dishonest; but i’d rather he didn’t refer to the matter. i want neither his thanks nor his excuses.”

without answering, jenny took the cheque. she would have given a great deal to fling her arms gratefully round basil’s neck, begging him to forgive, but there was a hardness in his manner which frightened her. all the evening he sat in moody silence, and jenny dare not speak; his kiss when he bade her good-night had never been so frigid, and, unable to sleep, she cried bitterly. she could not understand the profound abhorrence with which he looked upon the incident; to her mind, it was little more than a mischance occasioned by jimmie’s excessive sharpness, and she was disposed to agree with her brother that only luck had been against him. she somewhat resented basil’s refusal to hear any defence and his complete certainty that the very worst must be true.

a few days later, coming unexpectedly, kent found jenny in earnest conversation with her brother, who had quite regained his jaunty air and betrayed no false shame at basil’s knowledge of his escapade.

“well met, ‘oratio!” he cried, holding out his hand. “i just come in on the chance of seeing you. i wanted to thank you for that loan.”

“i’d rather you didn’t speak of it.”

“why, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. i ’ad a bit of bad luck, that’s all. i’ll pay you back, you know; you needn’t fear about that.”

he gave a voluble account of the affair, proving how misfortune may befall the deserving, and what a criminal complexion the most innocent acts may wear. basil, against his will admiring the fellow’s jocose effrontery, listened with chilling silence.

“you need not excuse yourself,” he said, at length. “my reasons for helping you were purely selfish. except for jenny, it would have been a matter of complete indifference to me if you had been sent to prison or not.”

“oh, that was all kid! they wouldn’t have prosecuted. don’t i tell you they had no case. you believe me, don’t you?”

“no, i don’t.”

“what d’you mean by that?” asked james, angrily.

“we won’t discuss it.”

the other did not answer, but shot at basil a glance of singular malevolence.

“you can whistle for your money, young feller,” he muttered, under his breath. “you won’t get much out of me.”

he had but small intention of paying back the rather large sum, but now abandoned even that. during the six months since jenny’s marriage he had never been able to surmount the freezing politeness with which basil used him; he hated him for his supercilious air, but, needing his help, took care, though sometimes he could scarcely keep his temper, to preserve a familiar cordiality. he knew his brother-in-law would welcome an opportunity to forbid him the house, and this, especially now that he was out of work, he determined to avoid; he stomached the affront as best he could, but solaced his pride with the determination sooner or later to revenge himself.

“well, so long,” he cried, with undiminished serenity, “i’ll be toddling.”

jenny watched this scene with some alarm, but with more irritation, since basil’s frigid contempt for her brother seemed a reflection on himself.

“you might at least be polite to him,” she said, when jimmie was gone.

“i’m afraid i’ve pretty well used up all my politeness.”

“after all, he is my brother.”

“that is a fact i deplore with all my heart,” he answered.

“you needn’t be so hard on him now he’s down. he’s no worse than plenty more.”

basil turned to her with flaming eyes.

“good god, don’t you realise the man’s a thief! doesn’t it mean anything to you that he’s dishonest? don’t you see how awful it is that a man—”

he broke off with a gesture of disgust. it was the first quarrel they ever had, and a shrewish look came to jenny’s face, her pallor gave way to an angry flush. but quickly basil recovered himself; recollecting his wife’s illness and her bitter disappointment at the poor babe’s death, he keenly regretted the outburst.

“i beg your pardon, jenny. i didn’t mean to say that. i should have remembered you were fond of him.”

but, since she did not answer, looking away somewhat sulkily, he sat down on the arm of her chair and stroked her wonderful, rich tresses.

“don’t be cross, darling. we won’t quarrel, will we?”

unable to resist his tenderness, tears came to her eyes, and passionately she kissed his caressing hands.

“no, no,” she cried. “i love you too much. don’t ever speak angrily to me; it hurts so awfully.”

the momentary cloud passed, and they spoke of the approaching visit to brighton. jenny was to take lodgings, and she made him promise faithfully that he would come every saturday. frank had offered a room in harley street, and while she was away basil meant to stay with him.

“you won’t forget me, basil?”

“of course not! but you must hurry up and get well and come back.”

when at length she set off, and basil found himself frank’s guest, he could not suppress a slight sigh of relief; it was very delightful to live again in a bachelor’s rooms, and he loved the smell of smoke, the untidy litter of books, the lack of responsibility: there was no need to do anything he did not like, and, for the first time since his marriage, he felt entirely comfortable. recalling his pleasant rooms in the temple—and there was about them an old-world air which amiably fitted his humour—he thought of the long conversations of those days, the hours of reverie, the undisturbed ease with which he could read books; and he shuddered at the pokey villa which was now his home, the worries of housekeeping, and the want of privacy. he had meant his life to be so beautiful, and it was merely sordid.

“there are advantages in single blessedness,” laughed the doctor, when he saw basil after breakfast light his pipe and, putting his feet on the chimney-piece, lean back with a sigh of content.

but he regretted his words when he saw on the other’s mobile face a look of singular wistfulness: it was his first indication that things were not going very well with the young couple.

“by the way,” frank suggested, presently, “would you care to come to a party to-night? lady edward stringer is giving some sort of function, and there’ll be a lot of people you know.”

“i’ve been nowhere since my marriage,” basil answered, irresolutely.

“i shall be seeing the old thing to-day. shall i ask if i can bring you?”

“it would be awfully good of you. by jove, i should enjoy it.” he gave a laugh. “i’ve not had evening clothes on for six months.”