"I mean that, tired as you may be of society in spring, when winter comes it will exercise its attraction again. You are too much accustomed to it." Mary made no answer at the time, but some days later--the weather had long been bad, and she had not been out--she said to Mrs. Dawes: "You may be right in believing that the life we have lived all these years has taken strong hold of me." "Stronger than you have any idea of, child." "But what would you have me do? I cannot leave here. Nor do I wish to." "No. But you could have a change sometimes." "How?" "You know quite well what I mean, child. If you married Jörgen, he would live sometimes here with you, and you sometimes at Stockholm with him." "A curious married life!" "I don't believe you can combine the two things in any better way." "Which two things?" "What life demands of you and what you are accustomed to." Mary felt that what Mrs. Dawes had just said expressed her father's wish. She knew that what gave him most anxiety was her future, and that a marriage with Jörgen which ensured Uncle Klaus's protection would give him a feeling of security. It oppressed her to think how little regard to her father's wishes she had hitherto shown. These days, with their deliberations, struck her as resembling the recitative in an opera, the part which connects two important actions. Now that the season was advancing, she felt like a captive when she looked out across the bay. When she stood on the hill, watching autumn's stern entrance in foaming breakers, she knew that it was bringing imprisonment for the winter. Her spirit stirred in rebellion; she was accustomed to something so different. Something in her blood stirred too. Her tranquillity was gone. As a memory, Jörgen was not repellent. The atmosphere which he brought with him was actually sympathetic. That her father had been incapacitated by an apoplectic shock, that Jörgen had been on the spot when this occurred, that he was her father's choice--was there not something in this that linked them together? Was there not fate in it? To make her appearance at Jörgen's side in Stockholm,[C] and afterwards to be sent farther afield--could there be a more fitting conclusion to her life of travel, a better opportunity of turning to advantage all that she had learned during the course of it? [C] The Foreign Office of Sweden was at that time the Foreign Office of Norway also. Uncle Klaus should help them--help them generously. She knew her power over Uncle Klaus. "After all, Aunt Eva dear," she said one day when she sat chatting beside Mrs. Dawes's bed; "I think you may write to Jörgen." * * * * *