"None of which things ever saved a man when Eve offered the apple--I suppose I ought to be very annoyed with you, child--but I believe it has done him good; he wanted rousing, he is, as you say, so clever. "He could have done brilliantly, but he is lacking in perseverance--If he had married a woman like you, he would have risen to great things. The finest gift of God is an indomitable purpose _to do_. My nephew drifted, I fear." Then their talk branched off to other things, and this proud old aristocrat, having made up her mind now once for all that Katherine possessed a character and qualities after her own heart, she from this day treated her as an equal and a valued companion whenever they were not in actual relation of employer and secretary; when in that, she would always resume her original aloof manner of one in command. Katherine delighted in this _nuance_, and appreciated the subtle tribute to her own sense of the fitness of things, and never once took the ell when she was given the inch, showing in this the immeasurable distance she had risen above her class. And so Easter came, and with it a large party--and Gerard Strobridge. At first sight, he did not appear at all changed. Katherine saw him from the window of the schoolroom just at sunset on the Thursday afternoon, when the guests arrived. He was walking in the rose garden with a tall, beautiful woman. The lowering globe of fire was making a blaze of reflected light from striking the row of mullioned windows of the picture gallery on the opposite side, and the flower-beds were a mass of daffodils and hyacinths. It was a nice background. He looked up, so Katherine saw his face plainly--then she stepped behind the curtain and the pair went on. She felt very glad to see him, and wondered when they would meet. At these huge parties she never came down, even to pour out the tea if Her Ladyship's hand ached, as at the smaller family Christmas one. So unless he made the chance deliberately, it was quite possible no words would be exchanged. This uncertainty added to the interest, and made her decide when Sunday should come to take especial pains with her appearance for church--Under Gladys' direction, she would be most simply and charmingly garbed, in a new blue serge suit, and becoming black hat. Before Saturday when they actually met, however, she had seen Gerard twice, once from the gallery as she was leaving Lady Garribardine's sitting-room, and he was talking to the same beautiful lady in the hall--and once from her window when he paced the rose garden alone.