She fell back in her chair, and shut her eyes.--What is it this time? She slept.... The bell awoke her. Her nerves jangled bright and disparate like the three tones of the electric bell. Lucy appeared. “Why Mis’ Fanny ... it’s some frien’s o’ Miss Clara--“ Fanny’s words were swift action. “Did you send them away?” “No ’m, I didn’t yet. Ah--Ah tole ’em ter wait. Should Ah--?” “Let them come in. Tell them Miss Clara’s friend is here and will be glad to receive them.” Lucy stood suspended in the unheard-of formal words of this lady whose value she sensed. By her face, she understood. She went out. Fanny’s awareness was sheer above the drowse of her chair. Her eyes commanded her face: they were suddenly young. * * * * * The door opened. Two women ... Lucy shut them in, and they were three together. One was a girl, short in her coat of black velours, all black except the gleaming face under black eyes, black toque: all round and yet her eyes watched Fanny sharply. Hostilely. Beside her a tall lank woman, very blonde, rose like the embodiment of the strange stroke in the round girl’s eyes. They stood, Fanny got up. “You must come in. Clara’s away for the day. But I’ve been so eager to meet Clara’s friends.” The taller one nodded. --What does she recognize, that she nods, in my words? “My name is Sennister--Susan Sennister. This is Miss Liebovitz.” Fanny took a hand, white in its feel beneath the long glove, and took a hand small like a child’s, warm and ruddy: gloveless. “Do sit down.” Miss Sennister looked at her companion. “Guess we got time, Tessie?” “Sure we have,” she smiled. “We really came to have a glimpse of you.” Her smile was rounder. “I’m glad,” said Fanny. She looked at Susan Sennister, to make her also smile. It would help matters. Miss Sennister smiled. But the smile did not help. It hurt. “I have been sick.... Probably you know. And Clara’s been an angel.” “She is an angel,” said the tall woman, as if Fanny had not meant it. “O ... she’s a good thing,” said Tessie Liebovitz. Her black eyes lay on Fanny’s.--There is no misunderstanding! They were soft. “We love Clara,” she said. “We say yes ... just automatically ... to Clara’s friends.” “Thank you,” Fanny looked sternly at Susan Sennister. “That’s a beginning at least.” She wanted to smile. This woman was so very stiff. She must be very stern.--How can I tell? What are they?... She went on: “I say Yes to the friends of Clara--but with all my heart.” “Have you been here long?” asked Tessie. “Very long!”