"Oh! And you think love a poor substitute?"

"Love, of course, is the most wonderful thing in the world. (She
might be talking of maternal or filial love, thought Masters.) But it
must have the sanction of one's principles, one's creed and one's
traditions. Otherwise, it weighs nothing in the balance."

"You are a delectable little Puritan," said Masters with a laugh
that was not wholly mirthful. "I shall now read you Tennyson's
'Maud,' as you approve of sentiment, at least. Tennyson will never
cause the downfall of any woman, but if you ever see lightning on the
horizon don't read 'The Statue and the Bust' with the battery therof."




XIV


When people returned to town they were astonished at the change in
Madeleine Talbot, especially after a summer in the city that would
have "torn their own nerves out by the roots." More than one had
wondered anxiously if she were going into the decline so common in
those days. They had known the cause of the broken spring, but none
save the incurably sanguine opined that Howard Talbot had mended it.
But mended it was and her eyes had never sparkled so gaily, nor her
laugh rung so lightly since her first winter among them. Mrs. McLane
suggested charitably that her tedium vitae had run its course and she
was become a philosopher.