acknowledge that she knew more than he did, that she was right and he
was wrong. She was now confined to her house, and the end was near,
but this was the most blessed time of her married life. She grew
under the soft rain of his loving care, and opened out, not, indeed,
into an oriental flower, rich in profound mystery of scent and
colour, but into a blossom of the chalk-down. Altogether concealed
and closed she would have remained if it had not been for this
beneficent and heavenly gift poured upon her. He had just time
enough to see what she really was, and then she died. There are some
natures that cannot unfold under pressure or in the presence of
unregarding power. Hers was one. They require a clear space round
them, the removal of everything which may overmaster them, and
constant delicate attention. They require too a recognition of the
fact, which M'Kay for a long time did not recognise, that it is folly
to force them and to demand of them that they shall be what they
cannot be. I stood by the grave this morning of my poor, pale,
clinging little friend now for some years at peace, and I thought
that the tragedy of Promethean torture or Christ-like crucifixion may
indeed be tremendous, but there is a tragedy too in the existence of
a soul like hers, conscious of its feebleness and ever striving to
overpass it, ever aware that it is an obstacle to the return of the
affection of the man whom she loves.

Meals, as I have said, were disagreeable at M'Kay's, and when we
wanted to talk we went out of doors. The evening after our visit to
the debating hall we moved towards Portland Place, and walked up and
down there for an hour or more. M'Kay had a passionate desire to
reform the world. The spectacle of the misery of London, and of the
distracted swaying hither and thither of the multitudes who inhabit
it, tormented him incessantly. He always chafed at it, and he never