him with a letter for madame which he now did himself the honour to present to her on receiving it he had proposed to permit no delay to deliver it to i o colonel s wife her immediately but the gentleman had instructed him to wait till madame was leaving grew nearly as white as the marble her feet as she took the note that the beaming italian held out to her a great horror came over her a sudden frightful self revelation but she mastered herself she thanked the manager for his courtesy the arrangements had been admirable in every particular they left nothing to be desired the man laid one thick white hand upon his wilderness of shirt bosom and bowed with speechless ah but there was the carriage at last as madame no doubt perceived in three seconds her baggage would be placed � so now might he have the honour of assisting her to enter it she walked out to the carriage firmly and even contrived to make one or two suitable little speeches to the engaging italian by the way � which under the circumstances was little short of heroic but her heart was like a stone she had no need to read letter � she knew quite well what was in it already mrs pierce drove through the magnificent streets with their solemn splendour of building and their restless charming grotesque human figures through the long arid straggling beyond the and out on to the dusty high road sitting stiff and upright in the carriage while the yellow evening sunshine poured down upon and her the great blue rushed up against the sea wall on the left behind the tall narrow and flat market gardens and broke in clouds of snowy foam with a deep mouthed roar which might be heard above all the of and shouting and swearing of savage looking drivers and rattle of wheels and grate of on the high road dusty roses hung over the high walls on the right and richly coloured glowed amid the cool glossy green of their old walled gardens now and again there was a block of or mule trains and the carriage drew up for a while in the midst of a struggling mass of straining animals and yelling human beings ordinarily would have been exceedingly well aware both of the beautiful and repulsive elements in her surroundings but as it was she saw and nothing she had glanced at the first few lines of s farewell letter and a shame a so had overtaken her that the drama of sea and sky and sunset of the contrast between the dignity and the of the scene before her was thin and insignificant compared with the depth of her own emotion the promised land i i good are unpleasant things wrote we have had plenty of them already to day so dear cousin i venture to spare myself the pain of saying that odious word to you of course i don t for an instant permit myself the impertinence of supposing you contemplated my remaining your guest after today s presence satisfied les you are too kind to give me my but i understand read no further mistaken exaggerated even at moments cruel as she was the springs of womanly modesty still rose pure and within her she with passionate disgust and horror good heavens that a man should ever have cause to say such things to her that she should have been so utterly blind and stupid in her mad desire to clear the way to get rid of the obstacle that seemed to between herself and the thing she longed after � as to have ignored the obvious result and so herself she had been too hot headed she had played too high and lost everything including her own self respect and then in an agony of terror she began to ask herself whether she might not have the ruin of other lives besides her own the only safe thing after all is to leave events in the hands of fate or providence � say which you will directly petty human purpose comes in trying to or to its own uses the actions of others so soon does rise up and follow on after us � on on with ever footsteps till the sound of her terrible tread is in our ears and we feel the awful gloom of her approaching presence but she may pass us by � oh yes pass us the leave us in peace and comfort pass us to crush to to those whom we used so as tools and it is easy enough to set the machine of destiny in motion but once the great wheels are turning spinning no mortal hand is strong enough to stay them again the dusk had fallen when the carriage drew up at the front door of the villa the house looked grim and deserted a dull light was burning in the bare cold hall the driver pulled the bell and on the of the half open door but the noise he made nothing more substantial than a dreary echo utterly weary and self mrs pierce got out of the carriage and went indoors in the of the hall she could perceive but one living creature one being there ready to welcome her home on the low marble pillar ending the at the bottom of the staircase sat up together his colonel en s wife face more wrinkled anxious mournful than ever as came in at the door he out his neck peeping and peering into the darkness behind her with quick uneasy of the eyelids and eyebrows he had on the little red tattered jacket in which sometimes clothed him in cold or rainy weather while on the narrow bosom of it with a truly italian taste for staring had pinned a large bunch of orange blossom tied with a bow 