Mrs.Talbot was not pleased with her visit, and did not come again.

But she wrote several times.

The tone of her letters was not, however, pleasant to Irene, who was disturbed by it, and more bewildered than enlightened by the sentiments that were announced with oracular vagueness.

These letters were read to Miss Carman, on whom Irene was beginning to lean with increasing confidence.

Rose did not fail to expose their weakness or fallacy in such clear light that Irene, though she tried to shut her eyes against the truth presented by Rose, could not help seeing it.