"And begins action for divorce without even saying a word about it!" It was Madame who interjected this possibility. "Wouldn't that be just like him! Wouldn't that be Frank just down to the ground? Edith knows how cold-blooded he is, don't you, Edith? O, it's too awful! I never could live through such a thing! I wouldn't live! I'd kill myself--I'd throw myself into the lake! I'd----" "Don't you think you are wearing that threat a little threadbare?" I asked quietly, henceforth addressing myself to the sister. "In the event that your brother-in-law does not come or that we hear nothing from him, there is only one thing left: you must take your sister back to Chicago ... and I'll go with you...." I believe my voice petered out before I completed the sentence. The idea was repugnant, but was it not all revolting in the extreme? I had given my promise to Will to "see it through" and I intended to do so to the best of my ability. Mrs. F.'s sister broke my train of thought. She stood before me with averted eyes struggling to keep back the tears, and twisting her hands nervously. "Mrs. Hartley ... I don't want to appear maudlin ... but I think ... you understand how I feel.... It seems almost inane to say ... how much we ... appreciate what you are doing.... For my sister's sake I thank you ... I...." "I'm not doing it for your sister's sake"--I tried to speak gently but everything in me seemed to have grown hard and unyielding--"nor for my husband's sake; neither for my own; I've got a boy--a son ... and there are two little girls...." A volley of sobs smote our ears and shook the bed. "My poor babies! The poor darlings!... I wish they had never been born!" ... "It's too bad you didn't think of them before, Fannie," her sister answered caustically. It was the first expression of censure she had voiced. Mrs. F. bounced to a sitting position: yes, _bounced_ is the only adequate description. Grief had made a quick shift to anger. She glared at her sister. "So you've turned against me, too, have you? I might have expected it: that's the gratitude you feel for all I've done for you. Where would you be if it were not for me?--you'd be pounding somebody's typewriter for five dollars a week! This is the thanks I get for sacrificing myself for the whole family! Every one of them will blame me for the whole business. What right have you to judge? How does anybody know what I've suffered for years living with that man?... literally starving for affection, ... he never took the trouble to understand my temperament ... he neglected me, he----" "Hah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-" ... It was my turn to indulge in hysteria, only mine was of the laughing variety: I laughed until the tears came--until I sank back from sheer exhaustion. From their expression Madame and her sister thought I had gone suddenly mad. "What are you laughing at?" she snapped, glaring at me with suppressed rage.