"Is there no one for whom you would do something ?" Just as in the desert a question like this had lifted a man out of a terrible and destroying apathy, so this searching appeal roused in Hylda a memory and a pledge.

"Is there no one for whom you would do something ?" Was life, then, all over?
Was her own great grief all?
Was her bitter shame the end?
She got to her feet tremblingly.

"I will go back," she said slowly and softly.
"Windlehurst will take you home," the Duchess rejoined eagerly.

"My carriage is at the door." A moment afterwards Lord Windlehurst took Hylda's hands in his and held them long.

His old, querulous eyes were like lamps of safety; his smile had now none of that cynicism with which he had aroused and chastened the world.