V





THE WINTER wore on, and society took advantage of the Waythorns'
acceptance of Varick. Harassed hostesses were grateful to them for
bridging over a social difficulty, and Mrs. Waythorn was held up as
a miracle of good taste. Some experimental spirits could not resist
the diversion of throwing Varick and his former wife together, and
there were those who thought he found a zest in the propinquity. But
Mrs. Waythorn's conduct remained irreproachable. She neither avoided
Varick nor sought him out. Even Waythorn could not but admit that
she had discovered the solution of the newest social problem.

He had married her without giving much thought to that problem. He
had fancied that a woman can shed her past like a man. But now he
saw that Alice was bound to hers both by the circumstances which
forced her into continued relation with it, and by the traces it had
left on her nature. With grim irony Waythorn compared himself to a
member of a syndicate. He held so many shares in his wife's
personality and his predecessors were his partners in the business.
If there had been any element of passion in the transaction he would