Theron smiled, and drew a long breath.

The gay clamor of the woodland songsters, the placid radiance of the landscape, were suddenly taken in and made a part of his new mood.

He listened, smiled once more, and then started in a leisurely way back toward Octavius.
How could he have been so ridiculous as to fancy that Alice--his Alice--had been changed into someone else?
He marvelled now at his own perverse folly.

She was overworked--tired out--that was all.

The task of moving in, of setting the new household to rights, had been too much for her.