At present there was nothing she desired so much as the simple, conventional, every-day existence of the woman who has never swerved from the beaten track.

She never saw a family group anywhere without envying the happiness which to her seemed involved in the mere fact of a home and relations.

Her isolation weighed heavily upon her.

If there were but some one who could claim her services, as of right, and in return render her the simple hum-drum affection which goes for so much in easing the burden of life.

She was weary of her solitary heroism, though she never regarded it as heroism, but merely as the path in which she was naturally led by her feelings.