XX


The rest of the season, however, passed without notable incident.
But it was known that Madeleine saw Masters constantly, and she was
so narrowly observed during his second absence that the nervousness
it induced made her forced gaiety almost hysterical. During the late
spring her spirits grew more even and her migraines less frequent;
sustained as she was by the prospect of her old uninterrupted
relations with Masters.

But more than Mrs. Abbott divined the cause of her ill-suppressed
expectancy and never had she received so many invitations to the
country. Mrs. McLane spent her summers at Congress Springs, but even
she pressed Madeleine to visit her. Sally Abbott lived across the Bay
on Lake Merritt and begged for three days a week at least; while as
for Mrs. Abbott and Mr. and Mrs. Tom, who lived with her, they would
harken to no excuses.

Madeleine was almost nonplussed, but if her firm and graceful
refusals to leave the doctor had led to open war she would have
accepted the consequences. She was determined that this summer she
had lived for throughout seven long tormented months should be as
unbroken and happy as the other fates would permit. She had a full
presentiment that it would be the last.

Masters glided immediately into the old habit and saw her oftener
when he could. Of course no phase ever quite repeats itself. The
blithe unconsciousness of that first immortal summer was gone for