“What a fool!” he said.  “I thought he loved his wife.  She’s a fine woman.”

“He loves his wife,” affirmed Kate stalwartly.  “But there’s a hedonistic fervor in him.  He’s—­”

“He’s a fool!” reaffirmed Ray.  “Shall we talk of something else?”

“By all means,” agreed Kate.

They tried, but the glory of the day was slain.  They had seen the serpent in their Eden—­and where there is one reptile there may always be another.

When they thought it discreet, they went back to the junction.  Lena Vroom was still there.  She was nibbling at some dry-looking sandwiches.  Her glance forbade them to say anything personal to her, and Kate, with a clutch at the heart, passed her by as if she had been any ticket-seller.

She wondered if any one, seeing that gray-faced, heavy-eyed woman, would dream of her so dearly won Ph.D. or of the Phi Beta Kappa key which she had won but not claimed!  She had not even dared to converse, lest Lena’s fragile self-possession should break.  She evidently was in the clutches of nervous fatigue and was fighting it with her last remnant of courage.  Even the veriest layman could guess as much.

Kate hastened home, and as she opened the door she heard the voice of Honora mingled with the happy cries of the twins.  They were down in the drawing-room, and Honora had bought some colored balloons for them, and was running to and fro with them in her hand, while Patience and Patricia shrieked with delight.

“What a lovely day it’s been, hasn’t it?” Honora queried, pausing in her play.  “I’ve so longed to be in the country, but matters had reached such a critical point at the laboratory that I couldn’t get away.  Do you know, Kate, the great experiment that David and I are making is much further along than he surmises!  I’m going to have a glorious surprise for him one of these days.  Business took him over to the Academy of Science to-day and I was so glad of it.  It gave me the laboratory quite to myself.  But really, I’ve got to get out into the country.  I’m going to ask David if he won’t take me next Sunday.”

Kate felt herself growing giddy.  She dared not venture to reply.  She kissed the babies and sped up to her room.  But Honora’s happy laughter followed her even there.  Then suddenly there was a scurrying.  Kate guessed that David was coming.  The babies were being carried up to the nursery lest they should annoy him.

Kate beat the wall with her fists.

“Fool!  Fool!” she cried.  “Why didn’t she let him see her laughing and dancing like that?  Why didn’t she?  She’ll come down all prim and staid for him and he’ll never dream what she really is like.  Oh, how can she be so blind?  I don’t know how to stand it!  And I don’t know what to do!  Why isn’t there some one to tell me what I ought to do?”