“Perhaps that is life,” mused Julia, kneeling down to say one more little prayer before she went away.  “Perhaps my ideal of a clean-swept, austere little cottage, and a few books, and a few friends, and sunrises and sunsets—­isn’t life!  It’s all a tangle and a struggle, ingratitude and poverty and dispute all mixed in with love and joy and growth, and every one of us has to take his share!  I have one sort of trouble to bear, and Mother another, and Jim, I suppose, a third; we can’t choose them for ourselves any more than we could choose the colour of our eyes!  But loving each other—­loving each other, as I love Anna, makes everything easy; it’s the cure for it all—­it makes everything easier to bear!” And in a whisper, with a new appreciation of their meaning, she repeated the familiar words, “Love fulfils the law!”

The next evening, just as the autumn twilight was giving way to dusk, Julia opened the lower green gate of the Tolands’ garden in Sausalito, and went quietly up the steep path.  Roses made dim spots of colour here and there; under the trees it was almost dark, though a soft light still lingered on the surface of the bay just below.  From the drawing-room windows pale lamplight fell in clear bars across the gravel, but the hall was unlighted, the door wide open.

Julia stepped softly inside, her heart beating fast.  She had got no farther than this minute, in her hastily made plans; now she did not quite know what to do.  She knew that Barbara and the boys had gone back to Richie in Mill Valley.  Captain Fox was duck shooting in Novato, and Constance had returned to her own home.  But Ted and her little son should be here, Janey, Jim, and the widowed mother.

Presently she found Mrs. Toland in the study, seated alone before a dying fire.  Julia kissed the shrivelled soft old cheek, catching as she did so the faint odour of perfumed powder and fresh crepe.

“Where are the girls, darling, that you’re here all alone?” she asked affectionately.

“Oh, Julie dear!  Isn’t it nice to see you,” Mrs. Toland said, “and so fresh and rosy, like a breath of fresh air!  Where are the girls?  Bab’s with Richie, you know, and she took her boys and Ted’s Georgie with her, and Connie had to go home again.  I think Ted and Janey went out for a little walk before dinner.”

“And haven’t you been out, dear?”

Ready tears came to poor Mrs. Toland’s eyes at the tender tone.  She began to beat lightly on Julia’s hand with her own.

“I don’t seem to want to, dearie,” she said with difficulty; “the girls keep telling me to, but—­I don’t know!  I don’t seem to want to.  Papa and I used to like to walk up and down in the garden—–­”

Speech became too difficult, and she stopped abruptly.

“I know,” Julia said sorrowfully.