tree oh as to that � she swept it aside with one of her airy motions but for instance � would he have been happier if i d been passive seemed to there again � how can one tell and the risk s not worth taking no she paused and they looked at each other again do you mean that seriously i wonder do you act on it myself god forbid the gods drive so badly there s poor he happened to be in their way as we all are at times he pulled himself up and went on in a matter of fact tone in s case however my don t apply when my wife heard the truth she was of course immensely kind to him and if it hadn t been for you she might never have known smiled i think you would have found out � i was only the humble but now � she hesitated � now you must be able to do so much � lifted his head and she saw the colour rise under his fair skin out at you ve never been there since yes � my wife has made some changes but it s all so � and one would have to live here you don t then he answered by an shrug of course m the fruit of the tree i m here of tea and she comes now and then but the journey s tiresome and it is not always easy for her to get away he checked himself and saw that he in turn was suddenly conscious of the of explaining and his personal situation to a stranger but then we re not strangers a voice in her just aa he added with an attempt to and yet justify his moment of that reminds � i think you know my wife i heard her asking mrs about you she wants so much to see you the transition had been effected at the expense of interest but to the obvious triumph of social and to after all at his side the group about the the interest was not so much diminished aa shifted to the no less suggestive problem of studying the friend of her youth in the unexpected character of john s wife meanwhile however during the brief across the her thoughts were still busy with she had at once that the sense of intimacy by their meeting been chilled and by her first allusion to the to mc which previously brought them had drawn as soon as she named the mills what could be the cause of his when th last met the subject burned im the fruit of the tree him her being in actual fact a stranger had not been an obstacle to his confidences now that he was master at it was plain that another tone became him � that his situation a greater reserve but her did not imply the least wish to this it merely showed her remembrance of his frankly interest in the was struck by the fact that so natural an allusion should put him on the she did not for a moment believe that he had lost his interest in the mills and that his point of view should have shifted with the fact of she rejected as aa equally superficial reading of his character the man with whom she had talked at s bedside was one in whom the ruling purposes had already shaped themselves and to whom life in whatever form it must henceforth take their mould as she reached this point in her analysis it occurred to her that his shrinking from the subject might well imply not indifference but a deeper a for some reason suppressed and almost yet the more intensely its painful hidden life from this it was but a leap of thought to the next � that the cause of the change must be sought outside of himself in some external influence strong enough to the innate lines of his character and where could such an influence be more obviously sought than the fruit op the tree id the marriage which had transformed the assistant manager of the mills not indeed into their owner � that would rather have tended to the problem � but into the husband of mrs after all the mills were s � and for a farther understanding of the case it remained to find out what manner of person had become s first impression as her friend s charming arms received her � with an eagerness of welcome not lost on the suspended judgment of feminine � the immediate impression was of a gain of emphasis of individuality as though the creature she remembered had her and run at last into a definite mould had acquired an outline a graceful one as became her promise though with perhaps a little more of edge than her youthful had promised but the side she turned to her friend was still all softness � had in it a hint of the old the impulse to lean and that at once woke in the corresponding instinct of guidance and protection so that first kiss before a word was spoken carried the two back to the i� relation in which th� r school had left them so easy a to the past left no room for the sense of subsequent changes by which such are sometimes embarrassed s had and almost at once transferred the fruit of the tree themselves to s side � passing over at a leap the pained recognition that there sides already � and had gathered up into the circle of gentle self which left her very dimly aware of any characteristic in her friends except that of their affection for herself � since she asked only as she put it that they should all be of her and i ve wanted you so often you re the only 