I cannot help you, or any one else, with her." Aldous had been very tolerant and compassionate in the past of this strange mother's abdication of her maternal place, and of its probable causes.

But it was not in human nature that he should be either to-day.
He resumed his questioning, not without sharpness.
"One word, please.

Tell me something of what has happened since Thursday, before I see her.

I have written--but till this morning I have had not one line from her." They were standing by the window, he with his frowning gaze, in which agitation struggled against all his normal habits of manner and expression, fixed upon the lawn and the avenue.

She told him briefly what she knew of Marcella's doings since the arrival of Wharton's telegram--of the night in the cottage, and the child's death.