thought it "right"--because it was what the better world did! But
now--ah! now--she was going unhampered by that compulsion which galls
even the best. She was free to stay away, but of her own glad, loyal
will she was going back to the husband she had treated unjustly, judged
by too narrow a standard.

"Allan will be so astonished and delighted," she said, when the coupé
rolled out of the train-shed.

She remembered now with a sort of pride the fine, unflinching sternness
with which he had condemned divorce. In a man of principles so staunch
one might overlook many surface eccentricities.




CHAPTER XII

THE FLEXIBLE MIND OF A PLEASED HUSBAND


As they entered the little reception-room from the hall, the doors of
the next room were pushed apart and they saw Allan bowing out Mrs.
Talwin Covil, a meek, suppressed, neutral-tinted woman, the inevitable
feminine corollary of such a man as Cyrus Browett, whose only sister she
was.

The eyes of Nancy, glad with a knowing gladness, were quick for Allan's
face, resting fondly there during the seconds in which he was changing
from the dead astonishment to live recognition at sight of Bernal.