object, as unfading as a mosaic mask, was fortunately the loveliest she
could possibly look upon. The greatest blessing of all was of course
that Dawling thought so. Her future was ruled with the straightest line,
and so for that matter was his. There were two facts to which before I
left my friends I gave time to sink into my spirit. One was that he had
changed by some process as effective as Flora's change, had been
simplified somehow into service as she had been simplified into success.
He was such a picture of inspired intervention as I had never yet
conceived: he would exist henceforth for the sole purpose of rendering
unnecessary, or rather impossible, any reference even on her own part to
his wife's infirmity. Oh yes, how little desire he would ever give _me_
to refer to it! He principally after a while made me feel--and this was
my second lesson--that, good-natured as he was, my being there to see it
all oppressed him; so that by the time the act ended I recognised that I
too had filled out my hour. Dawling remembered things; I think he caught
in my very face the irony of old judgments: they made him thresh about in
his chair. I said to Flora as I took leave of her that I would come to
see her, but I may mention that I never went. I'd go to-morrow if I hear
she wants me; but what in the world can she ever want? As I quitted them
I laid my hand on Dawling's arm, and drew him for a moment into the
lobby.

"Why did you never write to me of your marriage?"

He smiled uncomfortably, showing his long yellow teeth and something
more. "I don't know--the whole thing gave me such a tremendous lot to
do."

This was the first dishonest speech I had heard him make: he really
hadn't written because an idea that I would think him a still bigger fool