He made no answer. But in the weeks that followed, she dropped this thought again and again into his mind. Paris, study, work, old dreams--she played these against his business, against Amy and her friends and the flattery of Fanny Carr, against that odious press agent and the plan for Riverside Drive. "Has he turned it down?" she inquired of his partner. "Not yet," was the answer. "It's still in the air. "I wish this were over," Ethel thought. Joe's face had grown so queer and drawn that sometimes as she looked at him a sickening dread stole into her mind. "Is he really too old?" she asked herself. One Saturday night when he came home, with a sudden leap of compassion she saw what a day he had been through. "But he is through! Something has happened!" she thought. And she treated him very tenderly--both because of the state he was in, and more perhaps because she knew how bad it would be for both of them if he had decided against her. "How has the work been going?" she asked. He looked at her almost with dislike. "For a month," he said, "you've been trying to make me give up that Riverside scheme." He paused, and her heart was in her mouth. "I haven't said so, have I?" "No--you haven't said so," he growled. "Well?" "It's off. I've dropped it." She started to embrace him, but saw at once it would be a mistake. "Thank you, Joe," she said softly, and went into the nursery. It was so dark and quiet there. She had a cry. CHAPTER XX The next morning Emily Giles returned from a visit back in Ohio. "How have things been going?" she asked. "Very well indeed," said Ethel, with a scarcely perceptible smile. She and Emily understood each other, though very little had ever been said. "Mr. Lanier still working hard?" "Yes, poor dear," said Ethel, "but it has been so good for him." And at that a look of grim relish came on Emily's sallow face. "You know I'm getting to like this town," she remarked with a genial air. "I wonder what'll the winter be like?" "Oh, I think we'll do nicely, Emily. I've quite a few plans in my head." "I'll bet you have," said Emily. And she went to don her "uniform." In these days, again and again a sense of being just on the eve of something very exciting gave Ethel a new zest in life. One day in the hall downstairs she came upon young Mrs. Grewe. Ethel gave a little start and then swiftly reddened. And she saw the young widow smile at that, and it made her annoyed with herself for having been so clumsy. "I'll show her I'm not such a prude," she thought. And having learned that Mrs. Grewe had taken another apartment here, Ethel went to see her--with a safe little feeling that Mrs. Grewe would have too much sense to return the call. This would end it--pleasantly.