It was in the mirror that they looked at each other--in the strange, candle-lighted duplication of the scene that their eyes met. Selina drew the diamonds out of her hair, and in this occupation, for a minute, she was silent. Presently she asked: 'What are you talking about--what do you allude to as happening?' 'Why, it seems to me that there is nothing left for you but to go away with him. If there is a prospect of that insanity----' But here Laura stopped; something so unexpected was taking place in Selina's countenance--the movement that precedes a sudden gush of tears. Mrs. Berrington dashed down the glittering pins she had detached from her tresses, and the next moment she had flung herself into an armchair and was weeping profusely, extravagantly. Laura forbore to go to her; she made no motion to soothe or reassure her, she only stood and watched her tears and wondered what they signified. Somehow even the slight refreshment she felt at having affected her in that particular and, as it had lately come to seem, improbable way did not suggest to her that they were precious symptoms. Since she had come to disbelieve her word so completely there was nothing precious about Selina any more. But she continued for some moments to cry passionately, and while this lasted Laura remained silent. At last from the midst of her sobs Selina broke out, 'Go away, go away--leave me alone!' 'Of course I infuriate you,' said the girl; 'but how can I see you rush to your ruin--to that of all of us--without holding on to you and dragging you back?' 'Oh, you don't understand anything about anything!' Selina wailed, with her beautiful hair tumbling all over her. 'I certainly don't understand how you can give such a tremendous handle to Lionel.' At the mention of her husband's name Selina always gave a bound, and she sprang up now, shaking back her dense braids. 'I give him no handle and you don't know what you are talking about! I know what I am doing and what becomes me, and I don't care if I do. He is welcome to all the handles in the world, for all that he can do with them!' 'In the name of common pity think of your children!' said Laura. 'Have I ever thought of anything else? Have you sat up all night to have the pleasure of accusing me of cruelty? Are there sweeter or more delightful children in the world, and isn't that a little my merit, pray?' Selina went on, sweeping away her tears. 'Who has made them what they are, pray?--is it their lovely father? Perhaps you'll say it's you! Certainly you have been nice to them, but you must remember that you only came here the other day. Isn't it only for them that I am trying to keep myself alive?' This formula struck Laura Wing as grotesque, so that she replied with a laugh which betrayed too much her impression, 'Die for them--that would be better!' Her sister, at this, looked at her with an extraordinary cold gravity. 'Don't interfere between me and my children. And for God's sake cease to harry me!'