his return from Paris, it struck him that her husband offered no
very genial welcome. He had expected this, and willingly kept aloof.

"Read the letter."

Eve did so. It began, "My dear Maurice," and ended, "Ever
affectionately and gratefully yours." The rest of its contents ran
thus:

"I am in great trouble--dreadfully unhappy. It would be such a
kindness if you would let me see you. I can't put in a letter what I
want to say, and I do hope you won't refuse to come. Friday
afternoon, at three, would do, if you can get away from business for
once. How I look back on the days when you used to come over from
Dudley and have tea with us in the dear little room. Do come!"

"Of course," said Hilliard, laughing as he met Eve's surprised look.
"I knew what _that_ meant. I would much rather have got out of it,
but it would have seemed brutal. So I went. The poor simpleton has
begun to find that marriage with one man isn't necessarily the same
thing as marriage with another. In Ezra Marr she has caught a
Tartar."

"Surely he doesn't ill-use her?"

"Not a bit of it. He is simply a man with a will, and finds it
necessary to teach his wife her duties. Emily knows no more about
the duties of life than her little five-year-old girl. She thought
she could play with a second husband as she did with the first, and
she was gravely mistaken. She complained to me of a thousand acts of