Vevey school; whom she had written to, after their
separation, with a regularity that had at first faltered
and then altogether failed, yet that had been for
the time quite a fine case of crude constancy; so
that it had in fact flickered up again of itself on the
occasion of the marriage of each. " They had then
once more fondly, scrupulously written Mrs.
Lowder first; and even another letter or two had
afterwards passed. This, however, had been the
end though with no rupture, only a gentle drop:
Maud Manningham had made, she believed, a great
marriage, while she herself had made a small; on
top of which, moreover, distance, difference, dimin
ished community and impossible reunion had done
the rest of the work. It was but after all these years
that reunion had begun to show as possible if the
other party to it, that is, should be still in existence.
That was exactly what it now struck our friend as
interesting to ascertain, as, with one aid and an
other, she believed she might. It was an experi
ment she would at all events now make if Milly
didn't object.

Milly in general objected to nothing, and, though
she asked a question or two, she raised no
present plea. Her questions or at least her own
answers to them kindled, on Mrs. Stringham's
part, a backward train: she hadn't known till to
night how much she remembered, or how fine it
might be to see what had become of large, high-
coloured Maud, florid, exotic and alien which had

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p154 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p155w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p156

v?