day Mrs. Herrick carried a heavy heart, and only her adopted
daughter guessed how sorely Malcolm was missed by his mother.




CHAPTER IV

ANNA


Better to feel a love within
Than be lovely to the sight!
Better a homely tenderness
Than beauty's wild delight!
MACDONALD.

Malcolm often spent a night at Queen's Gate; he made a point of
never refusing his mother's invitations, and would even put off an
engagement if she needed him. On this occasion he had promised to
remain two nights.

A meeting on behalf of a college in Japan, for training; native
candidates for holy orders, was to be held at 27 Queen's Gate that
evening, and some excellent speakers--women as well as men--had been
announced for that occasion. Mrs. Herrick thought the whole subject
would appeal to Malcolm, and in this she was not wrong. Hitherto he
had fought shy of zenana meetings, barmaid associations, working
girls' clubs, open-air spaces, and people's parks, and even cabmen's
shelters and drinking fountains.