residence, where he was cordially received by the general, where he
gained an occasional half-hour with Carroll, and where he was almost
ignored by Mrs. Bishop in her complete self-absorption. Indeed, it
is to be doubted whether he attained any real individuality to that
lady, who looked on all the world outside her family as useful or
useless to the church.

In the course of the happy moments he had alone with Carroll, he
arrived at a more intimate plane of conversation with her. He came
to an understanding of her unquestioning acceptance of Mrs. Bishop's
attitude. Carroll truly believed that none but herself could
perform for her mother the various petty offices that lady demanded
from her next of kin, and that her practical slavery was due by
every consideration of filial affection. To Orde's occasional
tentative suggestion that the service was of a sort better suited to
a paid companion or even a housemaid, she answered quite seriously
that it made mother nervous to have others about her, and that it
was better to do these things than to throw her into a "spell."
Orde chafed at first over seeing his precious opportunities thus
filched from him; later he fretted because he perceived that Carroll
was forced, however willingly, to labours beyond her strength, to
irksome confinement, and to that intimate and wearing close
association with the abnormal which in the long run is bound to
deaden the spirit. He lost sight of his own grievance in the
matter. With perhaps somewhat of exaggeration he came mightily to
desire for her more of the open air, both of body and spirit. Often
when tramping back to his hotel he communed savagely with himself,
turning the problem over and over in his mind until, like a
snowball, it had gathered to itself colossal proportions.