Winnie found consolation and pleasure in discussing her affairs with both of these friends. Another visitor afforded her a healthy relief from the subject. Godfrey had brought Bob Purnett to the studio one day. His first visit was by no means his last. His working season had set in; he hunted five days a week; but it was his custom to get back to town on Saturday evening and to spend Sunday there. So it fell out, naturally and of no malice aforethought, that his calls generally happened on Sunday afternoons, when Godfrey was away; sometimes he would stay on and share their simple supper, often he would take the pair out to dinner at a restaurant, and perhaps come back again with them--to talk and smoke, and so go home, sober, orderly, and in good time--ready for the morrow's work. Winnie and he were wholesome for one another. She forgot her theories; he kept better company than was his wont. They became good comrades and great friends. Godfrey was delighted; his absences on Sunday seemed in a way condoned; he was not haunted by the picture of a lonely Winnie. He ceased to accuse himself because he enjoyed being in Woburn Square, and therefore enjoyed it the more and the more freely. To be glad your lover can be happy in your absence is a good and generous emotion--whether characteristic of the zenith of passion is another question. Accustomed rather to lavishness than to a thrifty refinement, Bob marvelled at the daintiness of Winnie's humble establishment. He admired--and in his turn pitied. His friend's circumstances were no secret to him. "I wonder how you do it!" he would exclaim. "Do you have to work awfully hard?" "Well, it sometimes seems hard, because I didn't used to have to do it. In fact I used to be scolded if I did do it." She laughed. "I'm not pretending to like being poor." "But you took it on fast enough, Mrs. Ledstone. You knew, I mean?" "Oh yes, I knew, and I took it on, as you call it. So I don't complain." "I tell you what--some day you and Godfrey must come for a spree with me. Go to Monte Carlo or somewhere, and have a high old time!" "I don't believe I should like Monte Carlo a bit." "Not like it? Oh, I say, I bet you would." "I suppose it's prejudice to condemn even Monte Carlo without seeing it. Perhaps we shall manage to go some day. I think Godfrey would like it." "Oh, I took him once, all right, with--with some other friends." "And all you men gambled like anything, I suppose?" "Yes, we did a bit." Bob was inwardly amused at her assumption of the nature of the party--amused, yet arrested by a sudden interest, a respect, and a touch of Mrs. Lenoir's pity. If there had been only himself to confess about, he would have confessed. "You want keeping in order, Mr. Purnett," she said, smiling. "You ought to marry, and be obliged to spend your money on your wife."