After days of physical wretchedness, which she had hidden from George, she sat one evening, utterly at peace, in front of the fire in the room which had been Patty's before her marriage.

It was past midnight, and she was waiting for George to come home because she felt that she could not sleep until she had told him.

In the morning he had been unusually gentle, and as he left the house, she had said to herself a little sternly that he must know about the child before the day was over.

A secret consultation with her mother-in-law had strengthened her resolution.

"Don't keep it from him another day, Gabriella," Mrs.Fowler had urged.