The little phrase, with its suggestion of joyous consummation, stabbed her with a sharp thrill of pain. Greeting her, as it did, at the moment when all her hopes of happiness were lying trampled beneath the iron heel of hostile destiny, it seemed to add a last touch of irony to the bitterness of the burden she had to bear. The House of Dreams-Come-True! In the solicitude and silence of her room Jean laughed out loud at the mockery of it! But her breath caught in her throat, sobbingly, and then quite suddenly the merciful, healing tears began to fall, and, laying her head down on her arms, she cried unrestrainedly. CHAPTER XXXIV--THE TEST NEW YEAR’S EYE found Jean sitting alone in Claire’s special sanctum--the room which had witnessed that frightful scene when Sir Adrian had suddenly gone mad. It was a cosy enough little room in winter-time. A cheery fire crackled in the open grate, while a heavy velvet curtain was drawn across the door that gave egress to the terrace, effectually screening out the ubiquitous draught which invariably seeks entry through crack and hinge-space. Claire was at the Dower House this evening, where a New Year’s dinner-party was in progress, but Jean had no heart for festivities of any kind even had she not been precluded from taking part in them by reason of her father’s death. The grief and strain of the last four months had set their mark upon her. She was much thinner than formerly--her extreme slenderness accentuated by the clinging black of the dress she was wearing--while faint purple shadows lay beneath her eyes, giving her a look of frailty and fatigue. She and Claire led a very sober and uneventful existence at Charnwood, the one absorbed in her quiet happiness, the other in her quiet grief. But the bond of their friendship had held true throughout the differing fortunes which had fallen to the lot of each, and although for Jean there was inevitable additional pain involved in still remaining within the neighbourhood of Staple, it was counterbalanced by the comfort she drew from Clare’s companionship. Besides, as she reflected dispiritedly, where else had she to go? The Dower House would have been open to her, of course, at any time, but there she would be certain to encounter Blaise more frequently, and of late her principal preoccupation had been to avoid such meeting whenever possible. And she could not face Beirnfels yet--alone! Some day, when Claire was married, she knew that she must brace herself to return there--to a house of dreams that would never come true now. But at present she shrank intolerably from the idea. She craved companionship--above all, the consoling, tender understanding which Claire, who had herself suffered, was so well able to give her.