The issue had been so satisfactory on the whole that it was considered advisable to tell James, who never failed to say day after day that he didn’t know about Winifred’s affair, he couldn’t tell. As his sands ran out, the importance of mundane matters became increasingly grave to him, as if he were feeling: “I must make the most of it, and worry well; I shall soon have nothing to worry about.”

He received the report grudgingly. It was a newfangled way of going about things, and he didn’t know! But he gave Winifred a cheque, saying:

“I expect you’ll have a lot of expense. That’s a new hat you’ve got on. Why doesn’t Val come and see us?”

Winifred promised to bring him to dinner soon. And, going home, she sought her bedroom where she could be alone. Now that her husband had been ordered back into her custody with a view to putting him away from her forever, she would try once more to find out from her sore and lonely heart what she really wanted.

The Challenge