"Geoffrey, don't say that!" Tears were actually in her eyes. "Philippa, what's the matter?" As he put his arms about her and drew her on to his knee, he felt that she was trembling. "Sweetheart, what is wrong?" "Don't speak like that of Philip Ayre!" "Not speak like that of Philip Ayre! Why, lady, do you hold a brief for him? You silly child! It's only a foolish way I have. But if you could only realise how I long, and long, and strive, and strive, to stand up with the best of them, you would understand how it galls me to find how I am thrust aside by men whose work seems to me to be so poor a thing. For their work's sake, I almost begin to hate the man." "Geoffrey! Geoffrey! Not that! not that!" Flinging both her arms about his neck, she burst into an hysterical flood of weeping--she who never cried. "Dear heart!--tell me!--what is wrong!--Philippa! Philippa!--my wife." She did not tell him what was wrong. It seemed as if she could not tell him what was wrong. Perhaps, as he told himself, it was because, after all, there was nothing wrong. She was only out of sorts that day-unusually out of sorts for Philippa. After a while he began upon another theme. [Illustration: "HIS WIFE WENT WHITE TO THE LIPS."] "Sweetheart, if something doesn't come in soon--and I don't know where it's going to come from--I can't see what we shall do for money. I don't know if you are acquainted with the state of the family finances. What we must owe the people I am afraid to think. Why they don't worry us more than they do is a mystery to me. I see you've been getting new boots for the children. They wanted them. But they'll have to be paid for, I suppose. Never mind! All things come to those who wait, and luck will come to me. I'm sure I've waited. Let's hope that an unexpected cheque will come along. Anyhow, wait until the 'The Beggar' is finished. It'll be a splendid thing-you see! I'm putting some of the best work into it I ever did. If it doesn't win the first prize, it's bound to win the third. Why, Philippa, your eyes are red. The idea of your crying because I was pushed against the wall to make room for an unknown ass like Mr. Philip Ayre!" "The Beggar" was finished. It was sent in. Then came the weeks of waiting. Geoffrey Ford did scarcely any work. The larger proportion of the work he did came back again. He seemed to be in a curious frame of mind--as though he took it for granted that that five hundred pounds was already on its way to him. "If I get that five hundred pounds," he would say, "I will do this, or that." His wife grew sick at heart. "Geoffrey, I wish you wouldn't think of it so much. You make me think about it, too. And then, if you don't get it, you know what a bitter disappointment it will be." "I suppose you take it for granted that I shan't get it?" "I don't take anything for granted. I never do. I wish you wouldn't either."