Mr. Bolton went seldomer to the office, and had begun to trust more power and responsibility into the hands of his son-in-law. He had privately told John that his health was not all he could wish, but that he desired not to alarm Nita, and he therefore confided to him alone that his heart was wrong. He had privately consulted a great doctor or two, and they all said the same thing. He therefore desired gradually to retire from the business. Thus more and more work fell upon Jerome’s shoulders, and yet they were not overloaded. He went eagerly and readily to work: in this employment, which a year ago would have been utterly distasteful to him, he found some distraction; for the atmosphere at home was not altogether cheering. When a man has acted in a base and cowardly manner, but yet has sufficient moral sensitiveness left to desire that his surroundings may think well of him, it is a galling thing when one who is a portion of those surroundings tacitly shows him that she knows he has not been all that he ought to have been–to her and to others; and that, judging, not by some superlative code of high morality, but by the common hacked and hewed standard of honesty and decency patronised by the ordinary, unremarkable man, that he has not even washed his hands in the common brown soap and water of this working-day world, let alone cleansing them in the finer and more subtle essences of chivalry. For some months after their marriage Nita continued to worship her husband with a silent, intense passion of devotion which soothed and pleased him, even while he was uneasily conscious of a certain volcanic, sulphurous sort of atmosphere, while he had the idea that he was as it were standing on the edge of a crater–a position not without its discomforts. Nita never asked him any question as to that other love of which he had spoken to her; she appeared satisfied with his emphatic assurance that it was ‘over, gone, passed away’ entirely, and she rejoiced in what he did give her of tenderness and affection. He never knew what it was that caused the change in her. He never asked, for he dared not, or Nita might perhaps have been able to tell him that one evening when he was away, Father Somerville had called to see him, and finding him out, had kindly bestowed his society upon her for half an hour. As it was, she never mentioned the interview except in the most casual way, merely saying that Mr. Somerville had been disappointed to find Jerome out. She did not mention that she had learnt during that half hour her own true position with regard to her husband, and his with regard to her–that she had heard about it without moving a muscle, and had sent Father Somerville away entirely disappointed of his hope to turn that position to his own advantage. The holy father came and went as before; Mrs. Wellfield never condescended to express any dislike to his visits. Jerome knew nothing of this; what he did know was that Nita’s whole manner and