And now all motherly influence and sympathy had vanished, and Mrs.Lavington, in fear and wonder, let her daughter go her own way.

She could not have done better, perhaps; for Providence had found for Argemone a better guide than her mother could have done, and her new pupil was rapidly becoming her teacher.

She was matched, for the first time, with a man who was her own equal in intellect and knowledge; and she felt how real was that sexual difference which she had been accustomed to consider as an insolent calumny against woman.

Proudly and indignantly she struggled against the conviction, but in vain.

Again and again she argued with him, and was vanquished,--or, at least, what is far better, made to see how many different sides there are to every question.