Before dinner Christine found an opportunity to visit Sibylla in her room. Her own brief excitement and agitation had passed off; Sibylla seemed the more eager of the two about the event of the day. Christine related it. Her comments on it and on what it meant ran very much in the foregoing vein, but was modified by her usual veneer of irony for which her friend made easy allowance. Sibylla had been prepared for an ecstasy of sympathetic congratulation; but it was evident that though congratulation might be welcomed, ecstasy would be out of place. Neither Christine's conclusions from the past nor her anticipations of the future invited it. "How reasonable you are, Christine!" sighed Sibylla. "And how immoral!" she added, with a smile. "You're not really very sorry about it all, you know. You're just very glad the trouble is over. And you don't expect a bit more than it's quite likely you'll get! Do you know, you're very useful to me?" "My reasonableness or my immorality?" "One's an example and the other's a warning," laughed Sibylla. "I don't think I'm immoral. I've had an awful lesson, and I intend to profit by it. There'll be nothing more of that sort, you know." "Why not?" Sibylla asked, curious to probe her friend's mind. "I don't know. No temptation--being sorry for John--being afraid--being, between ourselves, thirty-five. It all sounds rather mixed, but it results in a good resolution. And as for the future----" She frowned just a little. "Oh, it'll be all right, and a great deal better than I've been thinking lately." "I must get more like you--not quite like you, but more like you. I must--I must!" Sibylla declared vehemently. "Has being thirty-five a great deal to do with it? Because then I can wait and hope." "I should think it had a good deal to do with it," admitted Christine dispassionately. "Oh, well, I needn't run myself down too much. Really John has a good deal to say to it." "I've Frank too." "Yes, you have; and you're in love with your husband, my dear." "That doesn't always make it easier." "At any rate it keeps up one's interest in the whole affair," smiled Christine. "You're happy, anyhow?" "Happy? Yes, reasonably happy--and I suppose immorally too. At any rate, I'm settled, and that's really a comfort in its way." "I don't know that I care so much about being settled. Perhaps I shall at thirty-five!" The idea of years making any difference to her moods or her needs seemed rather a new one to Sibylla. Evidently she was holding it in her mind and turning it over in her thoughts.