then! But this was certainly anything but normal.

He lay awake all night, brooding, and on the following morning he
breakfasted alone.

When he came home for lunch, Helena received him with an expression of
pained resignation.

"Why do you treat me like that?" she asked.

He apologised, with as few words as possible. Then he repented his
curtness and climbed down.

Thus matters stood for six months. He was tossed between doubt, rage
and love, but his chain held.

His face grew pale and his eyes lost their lustre. His temper had
become uncertain; a sullen fury smouldered beneath his outward calm.

Helena found him changed, despotic, because he was beginning to oppose
her, and often left the meetings to seek amusement elsewhere.

One day he was asked to become a candidate for a professorial chair.
He refused, believing that he had no chance, but Helena gave him no
peace until he complied with the conditions. He was elected. He never
knew the reason why, but Helena did.

A short time after there was a by-election.

The new professor, who had never dreamed of taking an active interest