"I am really glad that I called, Miss Treville, for you have succeeded in convincing me that I have no occasion to be disturbed—on Donald's account."
"Miss Webb is going," said Miss Treville, formally, as the maid appeared.
CHAPTER XXIX
AN INTERLUDE
All things by immortal power,
Near or far,
Hiddenly.
To each other linked are
That thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling a star.
A. Quiller-Couch.
Life is so largely a thing of intermingling currents, of interwoven threads, of reacting forces, that it is well-nigh impossible understandingly to portray the life story of one person without occasionally pausing to review, at least briefly, incidents in the lives of others with which it is closely bound up.
So it is with the story of the pilgrimage of Smiles.