Fates. Nesta did not err in her divination of the good and the bad
incarnate beside her, though both good and bad were behind a curtain; the
latter sparing her delicate senses, appealing to chivalry, to the simply
feminine claim on her. Reason, acting in her heart as a tongue of the
flames of the forge where we all are wrought, told her surely that the
good predominated. She had the heart which is at our primal fires when
nature speaks.

She gave the promise to call on Mrs. Marsett and sing to her.

'An afternoon? Oh! what afternoon?' she was asked, and she said: 'This
afternoon, if you like.'

So it was agreed: Mrs. Marsett acted violently the thrill of delight she
felt in the prospect.

The ladies Dorothea and Virginia, consulted, and pronounced the name of
Marsett to be a reputable County name. 'There was a Leicestershire
baronet of the name of Marsett.' They arranged to send their button-
blazing boy at Nesta's heels. Mrs. Marsett resided in a side-street not
very distant from the featureless but washed and orderly terrace of the
glassy stare at sea.




CHAPTER XXIX

SHOWS ONE OF THE SHADOWS OF THE WORLD CROSSING A VIRGIN'S MIND