“I suppose that was the height of your ambition?” “You don’t give a man much encouragement to be ambitious.” “But this was before I knew you.” “Don’t you believe it. I never lived at all before you knew me.” “Absurd boy!” “I’m getting on for thirty.” “You can’t expect me to remember it whilst you behave as if you were seventeen. Take the book up again, let us give it an honest trial.” He read on obediently, and she listened with a real desire for instruction. Then all at once she put her fingers in her ears and called a halt. “That will do. Ring for tea, I can’t listen to any more....” He went on nevertheless: “‘_Mind is not the author of Matter._’ I say, this is jolly good. You can read it the other way too. ‘_Matter is not the author of mind. There is no matter ... put matter under the foot of mind._’ Put Mrs. Eddy under the foot of a militant suffragette. Oh! I say ... listen to this....” “No, I won’t, not to another word. Poor Gabriel....” He threw the book away. “Always that damned fellow!” he said. When Friday came and the house had been swept and garnished Margaret drove to the station to receive her guests. The room prepared for Anne was on the same corridor as her own, facing south, and with a balcony. Margaret herself had seen to all the little details for her comfort. A big sofa and easy-chair, pen and ink and paper, the latest novel: flowers on the mantelpiece and dressing-table, a filled biscuit box, and small spirit stand. Then, more slowly, she had gone into the little suite prepared for Gabriel, bedroom and bathroom, no balcony, but a wide window. She only stayed a moment, she did not give a thought to his little comforts. She was out of the room again quickly. She arrived late at the station, and Gabriel was already on the platform; he never had the same happy certainty as the first time, nor knew how she would greet him. The first impression she had of Anne was of a little old woman, bent-backed, fussing about the luggage, about some bag after which she enquired repeatedly and excitedly, of whose safety she could not be assured until Gabriel produced it to her from among the others already on the platform. “Shall we go on and leave him to follow with the luggage?” Margaret asked. “Oh, no, no, I couldn’t think of moving until it is found. So tiresome....” “I am sure you are tired after your journey.”