Vanna had put much good hard work into these last years. In the great metropolis of the world, a woman who is willing to work for others, and to work without pay, need never know a moment's idleness, and Dr Greatman had always a list of patients who were in dire need of help-- patients belonging to that section of humanity to whom in especial Vanna's sympathies went out. Every day of her life she was brought into contact with women compared with whom her own lot was unspeakably calm and happy--poor waifs on life's ocean, perishing not only for lack of physical help, but also for the want of love, and sympathy, and brightness; and Vanna, as a free agent, blessed with health and means, had it in her power to minister to mind as well as body. She was that rare thing, a voluntary worker on whom one might depend for regular, systematic service; and in her work she found her best and sweetest comfort. Jean's old epithet, "Consolation Female," was truly descriptive of Vanna in these first years of her sorrow; but as time passed by, and the inevitable healing began to make itself felt, there came moments of restlessness and rebellion--moments when a life of philanthropy no longer satisfied, when the inner Ego awoke, and clamoured for recognition. A duller woman might have looked upon these outbursts as backslidings, and have taken herself severely to task for faltering in the path, but Vanna, more clear-sighted, recognised in them a natural and healthy revival of her old spirit. She made no attempt to stifle the growth of this unrest, but rather welcomed it as a sign of recovered strength, and took a keen natural joy in ministering to herself, even as she had done to others. The first longing for a pretty new dress, the first time that a social gathering became a pleasure instead of a bore, the first interested planning for the future on her own behalf--she congratulated herself on each impulse as it came, and so far as might be, gratified it to the full. "You are the sanest woman I ever met." Piers's words were echoed by more than one person who knew Vanna at this period of her life--by Dr Greatman himself, between a frown and a sigh. "Absolutely sane; no extremes--a perfectly balanced woman, sweet and capable, and humorous-- one in ten thousand! It seems as though she had inherited the extra share of ballast which her relations have lacked; and yet it is there, the danger, the shadow. I was right. If I were consulted again I should say the same. Even in the last year another cousin has developed symptoms. Such a family ought to be stamped out. But I'd give five years of my life to see that woman happy."