Madame asked a few questions about her old schoolmate, receiving monosyllabic answers, then waited. The silence was not awkward, but of that intimate sort which, with women, precedes confidences. "I suppose you wonder why I came," the younger woman said, after a long pause. "No," Madame replied, gently, "for you told me in your note that you were troubled and thought I could help you." "I don't know why I should have thought of you especially, though I have never forgotten what mother told me about coming to you, if I were in trouble, but two or three days ago, it came to me all at once that I was wandering in a maze of darkness and that you could show me the way out." "I hope I may," the old lady murmured. "I shall be very glad to, if I can. What has gone wrong?" "Everything," she returned, her brown eyes filling with mist. "Of course it's my husband. It always is, isn't it?" [Sidenote: Running Away] "I don't know why it should be. Is he cruel to you?" "No, that is, he doesn't beat me or anything of that sort. He isn't coarse. But there's a refined sort of cruelty that hurts worse. I--I couldn't bear it any longer, and so I came away." "Was he willing for you to come?" "I didn't ask him. I just came." Madame's glasses dropped from her aristocratic nose in astonishment. "Why, my dear Mrs. Lee! How could you!" "Edith, please, if you will," she answered, wiping her eyes. Then she laughed bitterly. "Don't be kind to me, for I'm not used to it and it weakens my armour of self-defence. Tell me I'm horrid and have done with it." "Poor child," breathed Madame. "Poor, dear child!" For a few moments the young woman bit her lips, keeping back the tears by evident effort. Then, having gained her self-control, she went on. "I'm twenty-eight, now," she said. "I remember mother used to say she always had her suspicions of a woman who was willing to tell the truth about her age." "Sounds just like her," commented Madame, taking up a dainty lavender silk stocking that had "run down" from the hem. "I've been married six years, but it seems like twenty. Almost from the first, there has been friction between us, but nobody knows it, except you--unless he's told his friends, and I don't think he'd do that. We've both had a preference for doing the family laundry work on the premises." [Sidenote: Marital Troubles] "What?" queried Madame, missing the allusion.