Experiencing either the one or the other she bent before it, but there was a fount of bubbling vitality within, which it was impossible wholly to repress. So that when the little girl sat up in bed, and blinked her drowsy eyes--still drowsy for all the long hours of dreamless, healthy slumber--and when next she yawned and caught back a yawn in sudden recognition of a familiar object unobserved before--and when again she shook across her shoulders the thick plaits of hair on either side, and pulled out the crumpled lace upon her nightgown cuffs, and finally jumped up and ran to look what the day was like, it was perhaps as well that nobody was there to spy upon the newly-made widow. She actually laughed the next moment. Yes, she laughed as she sprang upon the erst forbidden window-sill, and out of pure daring sat there. Albeit a little creature, she was tall enough to have seen out without even rising on tip-toe,--it was the sheer pleasure of doing what no one could now stop her doing which prompted the action. And then again she sighed. The immediate past rose before her, frowning, though the old past tittered. She hung her head, ashamed of her levity--and next her reflection in an opposite mirror kindled it afresh. How comical she looked perched aloft with bare feet hanging down, like a small white bird upon a rail! What a nice roost she had found--and it would be nicer still if she sat sideways, with her back to the shutters,--so, and her feet against the opposite shutters--so! The broad, smooth seat would be an ideal reading place for summer evenings, when the sun crept round to that side of the house, and began to descend, as she could remember it did, over the ridge of beech trees which belted the park below. She could lock her door, of course. The room was her own, and even Sue could not expect to dominate over what went on within her own room. Besides--besides, she had almost forgotten that she was no longer under Sue's thrall, and that yesterday Sue had observed a gentle deference towards her. That might pass--she hoped it would. If only she could be on the old terms,--and yet not on the old terms! If only she might be Leo, and yet not Leo! She tried to puzzle out the situation. She knew indeed what she did not want, but could not define with any exactitude what she did. Three years of affluence and independence had to a certain extent left their mark, and she could not but own that it would be unpalateable to find herself again in leading-strings. At Deeside when a matter came under discussion, as often as not, Godfrey would say, "Please yourself, little wife,"--or, if not, the little wife was sure to be charmed with his decision. He was so much older and wiser, that whatever he decreed was safe to be satisfactory in the long run.