She shrank, for she saw in his nod and his smile that suggestion of knowing all about everything and everybody, and thinking the worst, which had chilled her so often.

Even in their short married life it had chilled those confidences which she would gladly have poured out before him, if he had been a man with an open soul.

Had there been joined to his intellect and temperament a heart capable of true convictions and abiding love, what a man he might have been! But his intellect was superficial, and his temperament was dangerous, because there were not the experiences of a soul of truth to give the deeper hold upon the meaning of life.

She shrank now, as, with a little laugh and glancing suggestively at the despatch-box, he said: "And what do you think of it all ?" She felt as though something was crushing her heart within its grasp, and her eyes took on a new look of pain.

"I did not read the papers," she answered quietly.
"I saw them in your fingers.