Still, now that he was married she would certainly be able to obtain what she wished, for he would not dare to refuse lest she should speak to his wife and destroy his happiness. It never struck Mrs. Belswin that to act in this way would be dishonourable. She had been a free-lance for so long, and had been so accustomed in fighting her way through the world to use all kinds of weapons, that the means she intended to employ to extort money from Oates seemed quite legitimate. Many a woman would have died rather than have applied for help to the man who had basely deserted her; but Mrs. Belswin, her moral sense blunted by constantly battling with the stormy world, not only intended to get money from her old lover, but intended to apply that money to secure the happiness of her innocent daughter. Here is a text for the preacher on human nature. Does the end in this instance justify the means? Strange things are done in this world of ours, but surely nothing more fantastical or shameful entered a woman's mind than to use her former disgrace as a means to secure her daughter's ease and peace of mind. And yet Mrs. Belswin could not see it--did not see it--and made up her mind to call on Silas P. Oates the next day, and not leave him until she had his cheque for a considerable amount in her purse. To-day, however, Archie was coming in order to tell them about Toby Clendon's proposed mission to Australia, and Kaituna was seated at the window watching for his coming, while Mrs. Belswin pondered over the problem of Silas P. Oates. It was a dull little sitting-room, in a dull little house, in a dull little neighbourhood, but then the aforesaid neighbourhood was eminently respectable, and that satisfied Mrs. Belswin. In her dread lest her daughter should be tainted by Bohemianism, Mrs. Belswin had gone to the opposite extreme, and, with the assistance of Archie, taken lodgings in a severely respectable quarter, where church bells rang every other hour of the day, and nothing less genteel than a four-wheeler was ever seen in the dingy street. Their abode was situated in Grail Street, which was so deserted that it put the reflective in mind of London during the plague, especially as a hearse was no uncommon sight owing to the undertakers (Wilps & Co., High Class Pauper Furnishers) being at the corner. All the houses were sad-looking, in keeping with the corner establishment, and Kaituna's face was sad also as she looked out on to the lonely road on which fell the fine rain. Dressed in black, with her hands lying listlessly in her lap, and her face thin and worn with trouble, Kaituna looked a very different girl in the dingy London lodging from what she had been at Thornstream. Mrs. Belswin thought so as she glanced at her after answering the money question, and went across to her with a look of anxiety on her face. "Kaituna, my dearest, do not look so sad," she said, tenderly bending over the girl. "You make me feel so terribly anxious."