"Your thoughts? That sort of thing in your thoughts?" "Oh, entirely in retrospect, my dear; and it generally comes of not being appreciated, and of wanting an outlet for--for--well, for something or other, you know." "Are you going to speak plainly, Christine?" "Not for worlds, my dear! Are you going to drop my acquaintance?" "Why is it in your thoughts? You say it's--it's all in the past?" "Really I'm beginning to doubt if there's such a thing as the past; and if there isn't, it makes everything so much worse! I thought it was all done with--done with long ago; and now it isn't. It's just all--all over my life, as it used to be. And I--I'm afraid again. And I'm lying again. It means so many lies, you know." She looked up at Sibylla with a plaintiveness coloured by malice. "So if I've been impertinent, just put it down to what I happen to be thinking about, my dear." Sibylla stood very quiet, saying nothing. Christine went on after a minute: "Can't you manage to be wrapped up in the baby, my dear?" "No, I can't." The answer was hard and unhesitating. "You've told me something people don't generally tell. I'll tell you something that I didn't think I ever should tell. I love my baby--and sometimes I hate to have to see him." Her eyes were on Christine's face, and there was distress--hopeless distress--in them. "Now I should think you'd drop my acquaintance," she ended with a laugh. "Oh, I've never had a baby--I'm not shocked to death. But--but why, Sibylla?" "Surely you can guess why! It's horrible, but it's not unintelligible, surely?" "No, I suppose it's not," Christine sighed. Christine's legs had been curled up on her chair; she let them down to the ground and rose to her feet. "That's all from both of us for to-day?" she asked, with a wry smile. "All for to-day, I think," answered Sibylla, buttoning her glove. "I meant to be--friendly." "You have been. I never guessed anything--anything of what you've said--about you." "Nobody hinted it? Not even Harriet Courtland? She knew." "I never see her. How did she know?" "She was my great friend then. Rather funny, isn't it? I'm told Tom's getting quite regardless of appearances." "Oh, I can't bear to talk about that!" "No? Well, you can think of it now and then, can't you? It's rather wholesome to reflect how other people look when they're doing the things that you want----" "Christine! Good-bye!" "Oh, good-bye, my dear! And take care of yourself. Oh, I only mean the wind's cold." But her look denied the harmless meaning she claimed for her parting words.