Jean assented with a small, strained smile, and Robert continued to discuss the subject with philosophic calm. Jean had declared with her own lips that worldly goods were of no importance in her eyes when compared to the treasure of their love, and in simple faith he had taken her at her word. It was beyond his powers of comprehension to realise that the last few minutes, with their calm condemnation of her Lares and Penates, had been one of acute agony to his wife's soul--the worst moment she had known, since the springing of the bad news. When she was silent and distrait for the rest of the day, he asked her tenderly if her head ached, and enlarged enthusiastically on the goodness of Mr and Mrs Goring in proposing to despoil their own home. "You'll find life easier, I hope, darling, in a smaller house. They've been a worry to you sometimes, all these collections, keeping them cleaned and dusted, and that kind of thing. We'll go in for the simple life, and be done with useless ornamentation," he declared cheerily. Now that the first shock of the misfortune had spent itself, his invincible optimism was slowly but surely beginning to make itself felt. The worst had happened; every penny that could be scraped together had already been confiscated; he faced the situation, and calmly and courageously set his face towards a fresh start. "Jean doesn't mind. Jean says she is prepared. That takes away the sting. So long as she is happy, it doesn't matter a rap to me where we live. After all, we ought to consider ourselves jolly lucky. It's only the extras which we shall have to shed, while many poor wretches will be in actual need. We ought to be thankful!" As the weeks passed by, Robert's complacence increased, just as, in inverse ratio, Jean's courage collapsed. It was one thing to declare the world well lost, when her husband lay in her arms, broken-hearted, dependent on her support; but it required a vastly more difficult effort to maintain that attitude during the painful process of hunting for a house at about a third of the old rent, and arranging her treasured possessions for an auction sale. To Vanna, her invariable safety-valve, Jean poured forth her feelings, in characteristic, highly coloured language.