Even with the knowledge that it could not last, that beyond the near future lay a whole lifetime of complete solitude and that greatest of all miseries, the desire of an obvious impossibility--even with this she was happier than he; because she loved him and she saw him daily getting stronger; because their relative positions brought out the best and the least romantic part of a woman's love--the subtle maternity of it.

There is a fine romance in carrying our lady's kerchief in an inner pocket, but there is something higher and greater and much more durable in the darning of a sock; for within the handkerchief there is chiefly gratified vanity, while within the sock there is one of those small infantile boots which have but little meaning for us.
Jocelyn entered the drawing-room with a smile.
"He is very pleased," she said.

"He does not seem to want to see you any more, and he told me to be inhospitable." "As how ?" "He told me to turn you out.

You are to leave by the next steamer." He felt a sudden unaccountable pang of disappointment at her smiling eyes.
"This is no joking matter," he said half seriously.

"Am I really as well as that ?" "Yes." "The worst of it is that you seem rather pleased." "I am--at the thought that you are so much better." She paused and turned quite away, busying herself with a pile of books and magazines.
"The other," she went on too indifferently, "was unfortunately to be foreseen.