She reseated herself, smoothing out her gloves over and over with shaking fingers. Jim took his place in his chair by the desk and picked up the pencil. They regarded each other with fear and questioning. He had the look of a man prepared to overcome hard things. “I suppose you’re thinking of John’s confidence in me, and what I owe myself in view of it, and all that,” he began. “No, I don’t judge you. You have always seemed so like a--no, not like a brother, but like a dear friend and comrade that I could always depend on--I never thought----” The words would not come and Lucy continued smoothing her gloves. Jim had himself in hand again and began speaking very carefully, drawing circles and squares on a piece of paper as he talked. “John and I have been together nearly all our lives. I am not going to say anything against him, Lucy, but before I knew you I realized that he was--was not as strong as he should be. When I saw you I gave you the devotion of my soul that--I needed somebody, Lucy--that I had been trying to give him, because you were worthy of it. I knew you were the most desirable woman I had ever seen and I acknowledged this to myself without cant. I was proud to give you this honor in my heart, and I was prouder that I gave it to you as you really were. What John gave to you was a hazy outline of a woman seen through a mist of sex idealism. Anyone else would have done as well as you. But I never doubted the reality of his love, such as it was.” Lucy began to show uneasiness again. Jim noticed it and hastened on. “When your mother came I realized at once that you were in for a hard time and I stood ready to help John. I saw that she wanted to be a high priestess between you two and I set out to combat her influence over him. I tried my best, but he didn’t want any help. He could have stood with you and it would have been easy, for your mother is too cowardly to carry anything through against opposition. But he fell for any suggestion she put out, and turned against me, which wasn’t so bad, and then against you who were more loyal to him than I even. Every cheap, despicable little woman’s trick that a baby could see through was another excuse for turning away from the straightest and most lovable woman in the world and putting a little contemptible, shallow----” “Jim, please,” interrupted Lucy, stretching out her hand and touching his. His body stiffened at the contact, but with a strong effort he restrained himself from another outburst.