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noticed, as the old lady stood with her face to the light, evidently seeking some further argument to move her antagonist, that her face looked wrinkled and careworn under that prosperous bonnet and air of domination. Middle-aged people show their troubles more plainly than young faces. All the old cares and sorrows come to light again in wrinkles and hollows, and depress the already careworn lines of the countenance. Mrs. Granby looked ten years older in her discouragement. She had all the middle-class Englishwoman’s honourable horror of a scandal in her family, and she had the patient expression of bearing the opposition of the younger generation, which mothers of families learn to bear by long experience. Lizzie had been like a daughter to her, but now she refused to listen to a single word of counsel, and Mrs. Granby felt helpless, and wounded by her attitude. She had made a great effort to seek assistance from this stranger; but she, too, was implacable, and the old woman was going back sadder than when she came. Alice felt a sudden rush of compassion; her own profession and training had taught her to observe closely all the signs of feeling, and she felt that this was no mere society incident which moved one ordinarily so calm and dignified out of her long-