1 Across the common gleamed the stately facade of Fream House, whose master owned most of the cottages in the village. 2 "Fream, your taste is as exquisite as a woman's. As a collector, you seem to have acquired every beautiful thing - except a wife." 3 "I've been thinking of marriage - for some time!" 4 "There's a young woman here who'd make a charming mistress for Fream House, once I have adorned her with silks and jewels." 5 "You're too old to marry a young woman, Fream - thirty years too old!" 6 "Well - I - I hardly hope to be a lover ...." 7 "No ill-feeling I trust?" 8 "Mary, you despise washing - - yet you insist that I wear white shirts!" 9 "In England, Dad, a retired officer is expected to keep up appearances." 10 "Why - Captain Furze! However did you tear yourself away from Doomsday Farm?" 11 "My man is ill - - but I was glad of a chance to bring these potatoes myself." 12 "How well you're looking!" 13 "Trying to make a run- down farm worth while is good for any man." 14 "I'm glad you're not one of those useless women who are afraid to soil their hands." 15 "So you're one of those men who think it's a God-given privilege for women to work!" 16 "I believe hard work is good for women as well as for men." 17 "By the way - I - I hear your father isn't well. I've brought him some new-laid eggs." 18 "Always glad to see you, Captain! We old soldiers should see more of each other." 19 "Miss Viner, why didn't you accept my invitation to tea yesterday?" 20 "Like most women, my excuse is - nothing to wear." 21 "Some day I'm going to make it impossible for one woman to say she has 'nothing to wear'." 22 "What a happy woman she will be!" 23 "I am very glad you think so." 24 "My dear - you are much too beautiful to be a drudge!" 25 "Miss Viner, I want youth about me. My house needs a charming mistress - - it needs you!" 26 "I need you - you need me! Marriage would solve both our problems!" 27 "Flirt with the farmer if you must - but marry the banker!" 28 "I won't hurry your decision, my dear!" 29 Not far from Fream House was the historic Doomsday Farm, a run-down property which Captain Furze had bought after the war. 30 "When I came here, these fields were covered with scrub oak, but next spring I'll have crops in all of them." 31 "You should be proud of what you've done. It's beautiful here!" 32 "I love it!" 33 "Do you really?" 34 "Look here - this piece of carving has been here since Queen Elizabeth's day!" 35 "You don't know how wonderful it seems to have a woman in the house!" 36 "It won't look so grubby, when you've cleaned these old walls and windows!" 37 "You're probably more interested in the kitchen - - that's where you'll spend most of your time." 38 "Grand old oven! It's been there a hundred years." 39 "We'll get a new sink. I know what it means to work with bad tools." 40 "Look around and see what else you'll need, darling, while I give some orders to my man." 41 "Arnold....it would cost a little fortune, to make this a home for a woman. You can't afford it." 42 "I know where I can get that little fortune -" 43 "I've loved those great trees, Mary, and protected them -" 44 "- but I'll begin chopping them down today! I'm going to sell them, to make this a house you'll be proud to live in - - and take care of." 45 "There's a fine woman, Mary - my man's wife. She's lived all her life on this farm." 46 "Father will be worried - I must hurry back to him." 47 "Lovers may be content with haystacks, my dear, but marriage is a house to be lived in - it needs cushions!" 48 "Out of these windows I see you, every day!" 49 "You promised to stay for tea - besides, I want to show you my house." 50 "You deserve beautiful things. You should always have them -" 51 "- always!" 52 Within a month, Doomsday Forest - which Arnold treasured above all his possessions - had fallen that a woman might be more comfortable. 53 "The place is agoin' to be a palace - fit fer a queen!" 54 "I been forgettin' - Miss Viner asked me to give you this." 55 "I've engaged an excellent housekeeper, Viner - - she'll care for you every bit as well as Mary did!" 56 "No need of taking this. We'll be in London's finest shops in two hours." 57 "I don't feel right - about leaving you, Father. I'll miss you every moment!" 58 "You deserve things like that, Mary - and I could never have given them to you." 59 Paris - the Italian Lakes - Egypt - romantic spots that held no romance....At length a return to Fream House ended the loveless honeymoon. 60 "You seem to enjoy your work....Do you, really?" 61 "It is helping my man to buy a little farm. That makes it easy, ma'am." 62 "A good chap, my dear - but you know he had nothing to give you." 63 "At least he would have given me love." 64 "Haven't I given you everything a woman could possibly want? Haven't I?" 65 "I have had everything but a husband, Val. You know that as well as I." 66 "Hush, my dear - we have more important matters to discuss just now. The modiste has arrived with the gown you are to wear this evening!" 67 "Tonight you must appear at your best - you are to meet my closest friends!" 68 "Please excuse me, Madame Celeste - - we'll finish later." 69 "Val, it's our first night home, and I do want to spend the evening with father - he's been so ill. Can't you postpone our reception?" 70 "Postpone it? When all these months I've been planning just what you'll wear - just how you'll look -" 71 "Don't you ever think of how I feel?" 72 "Five thousand pounds, my dear - - you'll feel like an empress in these!" 73 "Empress? You mean a mannequin to gratify your vanity!" 74 "Things! Things! All you've given me is things! You can take them back - - all of them!" 75 "You can tell your friends I'm ill - dead - anything! I'm tired of being a spectacle!" 76 "Young woman, you made a bargain, and you'll go through with it!" 77 "You will appear tonight - and you'll look your best!" 78 "Val, I expect that by this time you've made her the most gorgeous creature in the world!" 79 "I am Mrs. Fream." 80 "You know you have a charming smile - use it!" 81 "There's no time to announce me!" 82 "Mrs. Fream! I must speak to you at once!" 83 "Your father is very much worse. He is asking for you." 84 "I'll go with you -" 85 "Take your car - - my wagon might soil your gown!" 86 "Father is much worse - I must see him!" 87 "Your father has an excellent nurse - I'll take you over later -" 88 "But I must go now! Surely our guests will understand!" 89 "You can't help your father, and you can't offend our guests. Until they have gone, you'll remain here!" 90 "I'm glad you came over, Val." 91 "You can take these back with you." 92 "Come, come, my dear! You've been brooding in this house for a week - I've come to take you home!" 93 "This is my home, Val. I've never had any other - - yours was only a show-window." 94 "You haven't forgotten that you are still my wife?" 95 "You've forgotten, Val, that I never was your wife." 96 "Our marriage was a ghastly mistake - as marriage without love always is." 97 "Don't be absurd! You accepted luxury - you lived in it - and you can't go back to drudgery." 98 "Work would not be drudgery now - - it would be a Heaven- sent relief!" 99 "How fragile - and soft!" 100 "You cringe at one broken nail. What if both your hands were red and swollen from work?" 101 "They soon will be." 102 "Then you'll beg me to take you back!" 103 "I'm going to France tomorrow - to apply for my divorce." 104 "You've enough potatoes here for a month!" 105 "It was the only way I could see you." 106 "I received my divorce papers yesterday, Arnold." 107 "Can't we ever be friends again?" 108 "I can't forget so easily." 109 "I've learned to use my hands again - for you!" 110 "They're not the sort of hands I want!" 111 "You mean you could still love me - knowing that I don't love you?" 112 "You ran away from me once. Do you think I'd trust you again?" 113 "I'll never marry you! Doomsday Farm needs a mistress who is strong in mind as well as body - I've no use for a coward!" 114 Furze came to the Viner cottage no more.......It remained for her to challenge his silence. 115 "I have come to work for you, Arnold." 116 "Why, you can't stay here! The whole village will talk." 117 "I don't care what they say - - I only want to prove I'm not a coward. I'm going to remain as your house- keeper for six months." 118 "You'd never stand up to the drudgery!" 119 "It isn't drudgery - - if a woman serves someone she respects." 120 "Is the meat cooked as you like it?" 121 "I've placed some chairs in the living-room - made a fire there -" 122 "These must be cleaned." 123 "Tired?" 124 "If you're tired after six months, what would you be after six years?" 125 "No work is too hard for me, Arnold - unless you say I have failed you." 126 "And what if I say it?" 127 "I'll go. If I have failed.... nothing else matters." 128 "Mary, your courage is greater than mine. For six months you've endured my cruelty and indifference!" 129 "Forgive me, Mary! I can't let you go - I love you!" The EndHome