i could never have got everything into that little pen which they call a wardrobe she dismissed telling her that she could come up presently and lay away her things and she told her that one particular trunk might be put away in the large cupboard without being they are not things useful for this climate she said by way of explanation as a matter of fact the trunk contained some of her best dresses and the girl s difficulty was this that believing herself to be the princess in reality although only to the world at present she had dressed enough for that position but most for the position of a bright young girl living in such a place as among other apparel she bad some half dozen beautiful tea gowns which she had worn in the evening when she and were not going out to dinner the of these she selected to wear that evening and when she had washed her face and hands and had the masses of her lovely hair she slipped into it with a sigh of relief it was a well cut white gown relieved here and there with a touch of faint green now at that time of day a tea gown was a garment but little known at least in provincial england and was never worn by unmarried women therefore when margaret went down into the drawing room mrs looked up with something of a start my dear she said in rather a scared voice i don t know what you have done to yourself you are very much altered am i dear smiling in what she tried to make a natural and interested sort of way i don t think so oh yes dear child you look ten years older than you used to do you don t look like a girl at all a woman perhaps i shall look more like a girl to morrow dear she suggested i am tired to night but the morrow came and margaret looked no more like the girl who had gone away two years before than she felt like her she put away most of her dresses and as soon as possible she got a couple of new spring made in the mode then most obtaining among young ladies in she also bought a couple of hats to suit them but everybody insisted that never was a girl so utterly and thoroughly changed and altered as margaret north the day after her return a letter reached her by the evening post she took it with an hand although she recognised the writing at a glance thank you she said carelessly then got up well dear i will go and change my dress i am rather late she went upstairs crushing the letter hard in her hand her heart was beating thick and fast and a vague fear her whole being she put the letter on her chimney shelf and tore off her day gown with trembling fingers just her hair and dipping her hands into water and slipping into the loose white gown which she had worn the previous evening then she drew a chair to the dressing table and opened the letter it was long very tender passionate and full of grief and despair i have no words he said in which to ask your forgiveness i know that i have wronged you cruelly and it was that shadow which caused you to think that i was changing towards you � who could not change if i would for the deception i put upon you i have no excuse margaret i have no excuse to offer and i will not even pretend that i am sorry that i did it don t pass the rest of your life thinking me a who goes through existence like a roaring lion seeking whom he may will you believe me � yes i know you will � when i tell you that i have never in my life loved anyone except yourself will you believe me when i tell you that i shall never as long as i live love another woman you tell me to go back to my wife but if you knew what our life was together before i ever knew you and the kind of woman that my wife is i think even if you wished to torture me going back you would not ask me to go back to her after the two years of bliss i have enjoyed with you she has my name and that is more than enough for her when i spend my allotted time in she generally chooses that opportunity to pay her country visits or to take a cure somewhere we have not only nothing in common we have everything out of the common with each other with regard to the child who will one day succeed me he is less than nothing to me i have never seen him for five minutes alone in my life and he regards me entirely with his mother s eyes as to your decision margaret i abide by it it was not necessary to tell me that you would if i annoyed you in the future appeal for protection to your own people the suggestion of your appealing for protection from me has hurt me very cruelly but it is not for me to reproach you in any way you need have no fear still when what you feel now has passed by it is within the bounds of possibility that you may want me if that day should ever come you have but to write or telegraph one word to me at this address i shall not give this place up i shall not touch it if i should never see you again as long as i live i shall keep this as a shrine as a that i may come to when life is too 