He sat staring beyond his law books at visions, waking dreams that came and went.

The dangers of exposure that opened before him were in these dreams, but there were other mind-pictures that filled his life with a glow of colour.

How different from the drab horizons that encircled poor Vivie Warren less than a year ago! Poor Vivie, whom even FitzJohn's Avenue at Hampstead had rejected, who had long since been dropped--no doubt on account of rumours concerning her mother--by the few acquaintances she had made at Cambridge, who had parents living in South Kensington, Bayswater, and Bloomsbury.

Here was Portland Place receiving her in her guise as David Williams with open arms.

Men and women looked at her kindly, interestedly, and she could look back at them without that protective frown.