It seemed the very irony of fate.  A year ago, if he had had this money, he would not have even seen Tita.  The marriage was an arrangement of his mother’s, and now that he has got this money, of what good is it to him?  His wife is gone, yet he still is wedded.  The first sense of comfort he got from his newly-acquired fortune was the thought that he could now give Tita some of it.

But Tita would none of it!  The very fact that their cases had been so suddenly and so marvellously reversed made her the more strong in her determination to spurn any gift from him.  She was now sitting on the lowest rung of Fortune’s ladder, whilst he stood at the top; but, for all that, she would take nothing from him.  Rylton wrote to Margaret, who scolded Tita vigorously to no end; and so the matter stood.  The first instalment of a very magnificent allowance was paid into Tita’s bank, and rested there untouched, doing no good to anybody.

“It is senseless!  As his wife, you are entitled to some of his money.  It is not a gift,” said Margaret angrily.

But Tita had laughed, and tore his letter to Margaret in two.

“He wouldn’t take my small gift,” said she, alluding to that offer of hers of the half of her tiny income.  “And now it does me good to be able to refuse his big one.”

“But it isn’t a gift; it is your right,” Margaret urged again; but all in vain.

Now they are back once more in England.  Ten days ago they arrived, and are this morning in Margaret’s pretty room that is half filled with growing plants, moving about from this flower to that, and feeling unconsciously little thrills of delight in the fresh sweetness of the morning.

    “Spring goeth all in white,
    Crowned with milk-white May;
    In fleecy flocks of light,
    O’er heaven the white clouds stray.

    “White butterflies in the air,
    White daisies prank the ground;
    The cherry and the hoary pear
    Scatter their snow around.”

Well, there are no cherry-trees or hoary pear-trees here, but the perfume of the delicate lilac comes to them from the Park, telling them that spring is reigning, even in this dusty old city, with a right royal gaiety.

Twice during these ten days Rylton has called, always asking scrupulously for Margaret; and Margaret only has he seen.  Hescott had called once, but Tita would not see him either, and poor Margaret had a rather dreadful interview with him.  He had offered her in a frantic, foolish moment, half of all he was worth to be given from him to Tita, and Margaret had a good deal of difficulty in explaining to him that Tita, in reality, was as well off as any young woman need be.  Margaret even exaggerated somewhat, and told him that she had a large sum lying idle in a bank—­as indeed she had, considering Rylton paid in his princely allowance to her, with determined punctuality, every month, in spite of his knowledge