Page 144 (1/2)

Easter came late in April, when, to match man's mood, it should come;

for the world was alive with new vitality The south winds were infusing

their wonder-working heats, and the bluebirds flashing their streaks of

color through branches that felt the stir of sap, arohere bits of "secret

greenness" hid behind the dead leaves of last fall

On Saturday evening Mrs Lenox welcomed the same circle that had met at

her holoith the

soul-satisfying sense of the difference to her Then she had been a

social waif, received on sufferance Now she was one of them She could

even afford to have her own opinions The very memory of past

discomforts doubled the present blessedness, and Mr Lenox looked only

half the size that he had sixstride to

have taken in half a year, and with reason she congratulated herself on

her cleverness In Mr Lenox's gravity of manner as he took her in to

dinner, she perceived only respect for Mrs Percival, not knowing that

he had in mind the small episode of the Chatterer, which his wife and

Miss Elton had agreed to ignore