--_to accept it. I will come to tea to-morrow, as you kindly suggest._ She finished the letter, signed it, stamped and addressed, and sat idle at last, staring down at it. The neat handwriting danced, and flickered, and grew dim. With an awkward gesture she put her hands to her eyes, and brought them away again, wet. She smiled at that, a twisted, mocking smile. She supposed she was crying.... She did not remember ever having done such a thing.... So her future was decided.... It was to be work and loneliness--loneliness and work ... because, it seemed, she had no friends left.... Yet Alwynne had promised many things.... What had she done to Alwynne? What had she done? She turned within herself and reviewed her life as she remembered it, thought by thought, word by word, action by action. Faces rose about her, whispering reminders, forgotten faces of the many who had loved her: from her old nurse, dead long ago, to Louise, and Alwynne, and foolish Olivia Pring. The candle at her elbow flared and dribbled, and died at last with a splutter and a gasp. She paid no heed. When the dawn came, she was still sitting there, thinking--thinking. _March 1914--September 1915._ THE END PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA * * * * * Transcriber's Note: Punctuation and formatting markup have been normalized. "_" surrounding text represents italics. Apparent printer's errors have been retained, unless stated below. Page 22, "critise" changed to "criticise". ("Excuse me, Miss Vigers, but I hardly see that it is your business to criticise my way of teaching.") Page 26, "inacessible" changed to "inaccessible". (Miss Hartill, who had been, indeed, surrounded, inaccessible, from the instant of her entrance until the prayer bell rang, did not look her way a second time.) Page 29, "Tallyerand" changed to "Talleyrand". (Marengo--Talleyrand--never heard of 'em!) Page 30, "returned" changed to "return". (But to return to Napoleon and the Lower Third----) Page 31, "warned" changed to "warmed". (And how it warmed the cockles of one's heart to her!) Page 43, "all all" changed to "all". (Clare thanked the gods of her unbelief, and, relaxing all effort, settled herself to enjoy to the full the cushioning sense of security;) Page 47, "shouldnt'" changed to "shouldn't". (Well, I thought I shouldn't get it done under forty--an essay on _The Dark Tower_.) Page 83, "scretly" changed to "secretly". (and she would pay any price for apple-wood, ostensibly for the quality of its flame, secretly for the mere pleasure of burning fuel with so pleasant a name;) Page 88, "a a" changed to "a". (She could not believe in simplicity combined with brains: a simple soul was necessarily a simpleton in her eyes.) Page 89, "negligble" changed to "negligible". (So that negligible and mouse-like woman had been aware--all along ...)