His eyes opened wide and he stopped smiling, half frightened as she bent over and kissed his cheek. The middle-aged woman jerked him back into the seat and scrutinized Lucy suspiciously. Lucy rang the bell and descended from the car at the next corner. “I’ll go back! I’ll go back!” she whimpered, as a punished child submits to an angry parent. It had begun to drizzle. She was unmindful of the rain falling on her hat and of her bedraggled skirts. Tears rolled down her cheeks and fell with the rain drops to the pavement. She walked unsteadily and her breast heaved. Reaching the station she took the next train to Rosedene. Midway between the station and the house she met John, who was striding along quickly, and anxiously scanning the street up and down. “Where in the world have you been, Lucy? I’ve been worried almost crazy!” he exclaimed pettishly, coming up to her. Staring straight before her, she did not answer or pause. John followed her to the house, glancing furtively, from time to time, at her immobile profile. “Lucy! What in the world do you go out without telling anybody for?” cried Nannie who had been waiting in the hall. “It’s been raining, too. John and I were nervous about you.” Without replying, Lucy proceeded upstairs. Dimmie ran through the upper hall to meet her. “Hello, Mamma!” he called. “I thought you’d runned away. Nannie dressed me.” Lucy caught him in her arms and went into her room, locking the door. Pulling him down beside her on the bed, she burst into a terrifying paroxysm of weeping. Dimmie soon began to cry also, from fright, and Lucy grew calmer. “Oh, little son, little son!” she moaned again and again. Soon Dimmie slipped to the floor and began to play with her work box, while she remained in the same position, utterly exhausted. “It’s past time for you to go to Mrs. Hamilton’s, dear,” she observed finally, looking at the alarm clock on the table by the bed, and, at the same time, rising. She brushed his hair and brought his hat from the wardrobe. “Kiss Mother.” Dimmie obeyed, then clattered down the stairs. Once alone, Lucy rearranged her hair carefully, put on a fresh house dress, and descended to the living room. John was walking up and down when Lucy appeared. They could hear Nannie in the dining room instructing Katy regarding luncheon. The windows were open and the breeze that stirred the curtains smelled of the rain and of some aromatic weed that grew high and thick in the adjoining meadow. “You’ll miss your train, John,” Lucy suggested gently as she entered the room. She had regained her usual composure. John consulted his watch. “It’s gone long ago,” he replied moodily. “Well, you can catch the next one if you start at once.” Lucy picked up the small clock that stood beside Nannie’s metronome on the piano. “Go on,” she continued as he hesitated. “There’s no need for your staying.” “Well, Lucy, if you’re going to do things like this at a moment’s notice, how can I----?”