"And it has been all Judy's doing," said Jasper as they sat that evening in the little drawing room.
"What do you mean?" asked his wife.
"Why," he answered, "if Judy had not brought matters to a crisis by going away, we might have drifted further and further apart. But now we must have her back again, Hilda. She has fulfilled her mission, dear little soul, and now she must have her reward."
"No," said Hilda, in a firm voice. "Judy shall have her reward, but not by coming back. She did right to go. I could never, never have sent her away, but she did right to go."
"Do you mean to tell me, Hilda, that you could be perfectly happy to live without her?"
"With you," she said, laying her hand on his arm, and looking into his face with her sweet eyes shining through tears.
He put his arms round her and kissed her many times.
"Jasper," said Hilda after a few minutes, "I think the first wrong step that I took—the first beginning of that unhappy time—was when I lost my temper down at Little Staunton and gave up my engagement ring."
"No wonder you lost your temper when I was such a brute about everything," said Quentyns. "It was my fault."
"No, no; it was mine."