No, no, no! Such a match would be a mere coarse bargain. The very thought of it was an outrage to May. And yet--the pendulum of her thoughts swinging suddenly in the opposite direction--she remembered that neither Mrs. Dormer-Smith nor Mrs. Griffin had so considered it. And was it not true what Mr. Bragg had said--that many people did very well without romance, and were useful and happy? Self-distrust, once aroused, became wild and uncontrollable. She fought against her better instincts; telling herself that she was a fool, and that the world was no place for story-book sentimentality. If May married this man she would be safe from the gusts of fortune; she would be honoured and caressed (for it was clear that society accepted Mr. Bragg without qualm or question), and she would have boundless possibilities of doing good. _This_, surely, at all events, was a worthy aim! At this point--just as after a conflict between winds and waves there sometimes comes a sudden calm and the serenity of sunshine--the turmoil of her mind was stilled all at once, and she saw clearly. She lifted up her head and said aloud-- "'What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' Lord, forgive me! I was arguing on the devil's side every bit as much as that poor creature, Mrs. Dormer-Smith. And without her excuse of knowing no better! The whole thing is plain enough. If May could bring herself to care for the man--and such unlikely things happen in _that_ line that one daren't say it's downright impossible!--she'd do right to marry him; if not, she'd do wrong. And that's all about it." Here, at least, was a firm foothold. And having struggled out of the quagmire, Mrs. Dobbs was able to consider the other subject of Mr. Bragg's talk with her--the rumour that Captain Cheffington had married again. If it were true, and, above all, if his new wife were such a one as Mr. Bragg had described, there was a new source of anxiety as to May's future. As she was meditating on this point, Jo Weatherhead returned, eager to hear all about her interview with Bragg, and to impart to her something he had just heard himself. Mrs. Dobbs was glad to be able to feed Jo's hungry curiosity by telling him the reports about her son-in-law, since she could not betray Mr. Bragg's confidence respecting May. She found that he had been hearing a version of them from Mr. Simpson, whom he had met in the road. Valli's utterances at Miss Piper's supper-table had already revived all kinds of obsolete gossip about Captain Cheffington. "It'll be terrible for my poor lamb if half the bad things they say are true," said Mrs. Dobbs, shaking her head.