you can paint only ugly women, so much the better, I've no doubt."

Franks stood reflecting. Then he nodded.

"All that is sensible enough. But, if I give her up, I shall marry
some one else straight away."

Then he abruptly said good-night, leaving Warburton not unhopeful
about him, and much consoled by the disappearance of the shadow
which had threatened their good understanding.





CHAPTER 11




The Crosses, mother and daughter, lived at Walham Green. The house
was less pleasant than another which Mrs. Cross owned at Putney, but
it also represented a lower rental, and poverty obliged them to take
this into account. When the second house stood tenantless, as had
now been the case for half a year, Mrs. Cross' habitually querulous
comment on life rose to a note of acrimony very afflictive to her
daughter Bertha. The two bore as little resemblance to each other,
physical or mental, as mother and child well could. Bertha Cross was
a sensible, thoughtful girl, full of kindly feeling, and blest with
a humorous turn that enabled her to see the amusing rather than the