The thought of happiness called up a vision of the perpetually radiant bride. "Oh, Mrs. Gardner, she's as happy as the day is long. Much too happy, she says, to go about paying calls." "_I_ haven't called much, have I?" said Anne, hoping that her friend would draw the suggested inference. "No, you haven't. _You_ ought to be ashamed of yourself." "Why I any more than Mrs. Gardner? But I am." Mrs. Eliott perceived her blunder. "Well, I forgive you, as long as you're happy." Anne kissed her more tenderly than usual as they said good-bye, so tenderly that Mrs. Eliott wondered "Is she?" Majendie was late that afternoon, and Anne had an hour alone with Edith. She had made up her mind to speak seriously to her sister-in-law on the subject of Mr. Gorst, and she chose this admirable opportunity. "Edith," said she with the abruptness of extreme embarrassment, "did you know that Lady Cayley had come back?" "Come back?" "She's here, living in Scale." There was a pause before Edith answered. Anne judged from the quiet of her manner that this was not the first time that she had heard of the return. "Well, dear, after all, if she is, what does it matter? She must live somewhere." "I should have thought that for her own sake it was a pity to have chosen a town where she was so well known." "Oh well, that's her own affair. I suppose she argues that most people here know the worst; and that's always a comfort." "Oh, for all they appear to care--" Her face became tragic, and she lost her unnatural control. "I can't understand it. I never saw such people. She's received as if nothing had happened." "By her own people. It's decent of them not to cast her off." "Oh, as for decency, they don't seem to have a shred of it amongst them. And the Hannays are not her own people. I thought I should be safe in going there after what you told me. And it was there I met her." "I know. They were most distressed about it." "And yet they received her, too, as if nothing had happened." "Because nothing can happen now. They got rid of her when she was dangerous. She isn't dangerous any more. On the contrary, I believe her great idea now is to be respectable. I suppose they're trying to give her a lift up. You must admit it's nice of them." "You think them nice?" "I think _that's_ nice of them. It's the sort of thing they do. They're kind people, if they're not the most spiritual I have met."