Jane tried to believe that her ignorance of a fact so vital to Lingard was not in any way Athena's fault--indeed, that it was nobody's fault except perchance her own. "You mean you don't know whether he will accept what will be offered him? But, Jane, forgive my interference--he and I have become such friends--you must _make_ him take it. It would be a splendid thing, a stepping-stone to something really big. You'll have to train yourself now to be a little worldly----" Athena spoke with forced lightness. It would be dreadful if Jane in her folly made Lingard do anything which would be irrevocable. "You can't always live with your head in the clouds, you know!" Jane felt as if the other had struck her; this flippant, hard-voiced woman was not the Athena she had always known. "I don't suppose," said Mrs. Maule, at last looking up, and smiling into Jane's face, "that you've even made up your mind where you will spend your honeymoon?" She was feeling slightly ashamed,--ashamed and yet exhilarated by this absurd, make-believe conversation. Jane shut the book she held in her hand, and put it down. "Athena," she said quietly, "I did not mean to tell you yet, but now I think I had better do so. I am going to break my engagement. I see--of course I can't help seeing--that it's been a mistake from the beginning." "He was not good enough for you, Jane," said Mrs. Maule impulsively. "What he wants is a wife who will help him. You did not understand. I saw that from the first----" Jane went on quickly: "After all, men--and women, too, I suppose,--often do make that sort of mistake. It's a good thing when they find it out in time--as I have done. But I would rather not talk about it." She changed the subject abruptly: "I feel rather worried about Mabel Digby. She's really quite ill. I thought of lunching there to-day, if you have no objection." "Yes, do go there! Surely you know I always want you to do just what you like when you're here?" Athena's voice sounded oddly loud in her own ears. It seemed to her as if she had lost control over its modulations.... As the door of the library closed behind Jane Oglander, Athena Maule sat down. She felt oppressed, almost scared, by this piece of good fortune. She had never thought things would be made so easy for her. How mistaken she had been in Jane's attitude, not only to Hew Lingard, but to life! And how mistaken Lingard had been! Athena could not help feeling a certain contempt for him; but all men, so she reminded herself, are vain where women are concerned. They always put a far higher value on themselves than does the woman on whom they are wasting their pity, their--their remorse.