The Press., 1894-10-18

Au7aoe "rse eaiIr FAeros
 coPrRIoHT. 1893. sr THE j.. 3. L,rrIMcorr co. fine days and weeks went on. If Rich ard had been accounted eccentric before, there was far greater cause for the term now. Life dragged. Too much had been taken out of his life all at once, for ill the first place the family had been drawn together more during the trouble which Lali's advent had brought. Then the child and its mother, his pupil, were gone also. He wandered about in kind of vague unrest. The hardest thing in this world to get used to is the absence of familiar footstep and the cheerful greeting of familiar eye. And the man with no chick or child feels even the absence of his dog from the hearth rug when he returns from journey or his days work. It gives him sense of strangeness and loss. But when it is the voice of woman and the hand of a child that is missed you can back no speculation upon that mans mood or mind or conduct. There is no influence like the influence of habit, and that is how, when the minds of people are at one, physical distance and differences, no matter how great, are invisible or at least not obvious.
 Richard Armour was a sensible man, but when one morning he suddenly packed portmanteau and went up to town to Cavendish square the act might be considered from two sides of the equation. If he came back to enter again into the social life which for so many years he had abjured, it was not very sensible, because the world never welcomes its deserters. It might if men and women grew younger instead of older. If he came to see his family, or because he hungered for his godchild, or because-but we are hurrying the situation. It were wiser not to state the problem yet. The afternoon that he arrived at Cavendish square all his family were out except his brother s wife. Lali was ill the drawing room receiving visitor who had asked for Mrs. Armour and Mrs. Francis Armour. The visitor was received by Mrs. Fran cis Armour. The visitor knew that Mrs. Armour was not at home. She had by chance seen her and Marion in Bond street and was not seen by them. She straightway got into her carriage and drove up to Cavendish square, hoping to find Mrs. Francis Armour at home There had been house parties at Grey hope since Lali had come there to live, but this visitor, though once an inti- mate friend of the family, had never been a guest.
 The visitor was Lady Haldwell, once Miss Julia Sherwood, who had made possible what was called Francis Ar mour's tragedy. Since Lali had come to town Lady Haldwell had seen her, but had never met her. She was not at heart wicked, but there are few women who can resist an opportunity of anato- mixing and reckoning up the merits and demerits of woman who has mar ried an old lover. When that woman is ill the position of Mrs. Francis Armour the situation has an unusual piquancy and interest. Hence Lady Haldwell's journey of inquisition to Cavendish square.
 As Richard passed the drawing room door to ascend the stairs he recognized the voices.
 Once a sort of heathen as Mrs. Fran cis Armour had been, she still could grasp the situation with considerable clearness. There is nothing keener than one woman's s instinct regarding another woman where man Is concerned. Mrs. Francis Armour received Lady Hald- we'll with quiet stateliness which, if it did not astonish her, gave her suff1- cient warning that matters were not i'll this little comedy to be all her own way.
 Thrown upon the mere resources of wit and language, Mrs. Francis Armour must have been at @ disadvantage, for Lady Haldwell had good gift of speech, a pretty talatt for epithet and no unnecessary tenderness. She bore Lai no malice. She was too decorous and high for that. In her mind the wife of the man she had discarded was a mere commonplace catastrophe, to be viewed without horror, maybe with pity. She had heard the alien spoken we'll of by some people, Others had seemed indignant that the Armours should try to push "a red woman" into
 
 did not try at all to push her. For over three years they had let society talk. They had not entertained largely in Cavendish square since Lali came, and those invited to Greyhope had chance to refuse the invitations if they choose. Most people did not choose to decline them. But Lady Haldwell was not of that number. She had never been 1nvit- ed. But now in town, when entertain ment must be more general, she and the Armours were prepared for social interchange.
 Behind Lady Haldwell's visit curios- ity chiefly ran. She was in way sorry for Frank Armour, for she had been fond of him after fashion, always fonder of him than of Lord Haldwell. She had married with her fingers hold ing the scales of advantage, and Lord Haldwell dressed we'll, was immensely rich, and the title had charm.
 When Mrs. Francis Armour met her with her strange, impressive dignity, she was the slightest bit confused, but not outwardly. She had not expected it. At first Lali did not know who her wis., itor was. She had not caught the name distinctly from the servant.
 Presently Lady Haldwell said, as Lali gave her hand: 1T am Lady Hald- well. As Miss Sherwood was an old friend of your husband. ''
 A scornful glitter came into Mrs. Armour's eyes-a peculiar touch as of furnished gold, an effect of the light at certain angle of the lens. It gave for the instant an uncanny look to the face, almost something malicious. She guess ed why this woman had come She knew the whole history of the past. and it