their journey's end the red-haired lady was engaged to a commercial
traveller whom she met on the boat. By then Bruce and she were equally
convinced that in going to Australia they had decidedly gone too far.

* * * * *

So Brace came back, and Edith forgave him. She made one condition only
(which was also her one revenge), that he should never speak about it,
never mention the subject again.

Aylmer Ross, who had taken his romance seriously to heart, refused to be
kept as _l'ami de la maison,_ and as a platonic admirer. Deeply
disappointed--for he was prepared to give his life to Edith and her
children (he was a widower of independent means)--he had left England;
she had never seen him since.

All this had been a real event, a real break in Edith's life. For the
first few months after she suffered, missing the excitement of Aylmer's
controlled passion, and his congenial society. Gradually she made
herself--not forget it--but put aside, ignore the whole incident. It
gave her genuine satisfaction to know that she had made a sacrifice for
Bruce's sake. She was aware that he could not exist really
satisfactorily without her, though perhaps he didn't know it. He needed
her. At first she had endeavoured to remain separated from him, while
apparently living together, from who knows what feeling of romantic
fidelity to Aylmer, or pique at the slight shown her by her husband.
Then she found that impossible. It would make him more liable to other
complications and the whole situation too full of general difficulties.
So now, for the last three years, they had been on much the same terms
as they were before. Bruce had become, perhaps, less patronising, more