Marcella nodded.

"I'm pretty sure I'd never have got to this state of things if I'd never
known it was in the family. It seems inevitable, as if I'm working out a
laid-down law."

"Louis, I'm not very clever. As I told you, father used to call me a
double-distilled idiot when he got in a temper. But I do think you're
wrong. People are not a part of families nearly so much as they are
themselves. Besides--imagine letting anything get you down, and put
chains on you like that!" she added scornfully.

"You don't know what you're talking about," he said bitterly. "It
simply chews you up, gnaws holes in you."

She thought of what Dr. Angus had said.

"Well then, patch yourself up and go on again."

"But after all, why should you? There's nobody cares tuppence now what
happens to me. I'm an outcast."

"Louis, what was that you promised your mother--I heard you on the ship
just as the tender was going? Didn't you promise to make yourself
better?"

"Yes, but I've been thinking about it. Why should I? What does it really
matter to the Mater? She didn't care enough not to have me spewed out of
home. She's at home now; they'll be sitting round the dinner-table after
a tip-top meal. Presently they'll be playing whist and congratulating