"Only be kind, only forget everything but her!" The softness of her voice had yet a severity beneath it that Letty felt, but had no spirit to resent, Rather it awakened an uneasy and painful sense that, after all, it was not she who had come off conqueror in this great encounter. The incidents of the last half-hour seemed in some curious way to have reversed their positions. Letty, smarting, felt that her relation to George's dying mother had revealed her to Lady Maxwell far more than any wild and half-sincere confessions could have done. Her vanity felt a deep inner wound, yet of a new sort. At any rate, Marcella's self-abasement was over, and Letty instinctively realised that she would never see it again, while at the same time a new and clinging need had arisen in herself. The very neighbourhood of the personality beside her had begun to thrill and subjugate her. She had been conscious enough before--enviously, hatefully conscious--of all the attributes and possessions that made Maxwell's wife a great person in the world of London. What was stealing upon her now was glamour and rank and influence of another kind. Not unmixed, no doubt, with more mundane thoughts! No ordinary preacher, no middle-class eloquence perhaps would have sufficed--nothing less dramatic and distinguished than the scene which had actually passed, than a Marcella at her feet. Well! there are many modes and grades of conversion. Whether by what was worst in her, or what was best; whether the same weaknesses of character that had originally inflamed her had now helped to subdue her or no, what matter? So much stood--that one short hour had been enough to draw this vain, selfish nature within a moral grasp she was never again to shake off. Meanwhile, as they drove towards Warwick Square Marcella's only thought was how to hand her over safe to her husband. A sense of agonised responsibility awoke in the elder woman at the thought of Cathedine. But no more emotion--only common sense and gentleness. As they neared Warwick Square, Letty withdrew her hand. "I don't suppose you will ever want to see me again," she said huskily, turning her head away. "Do you think that very possible between two people who have gone through such a time as you and I have?" said Marcella, pale, but smiling. "When may I come to see you to-morrow? I shall send to inquire, of course, very early." Some thought made Letty's breath come quickly. "Will you come in the afternoon--about four?" she said hastily. "I suppose I shall be here." They were just stopping at the door in Warwick Square. "You said you would tell me--" "I have a great deal to tell you.... I will come, then, and see if you can be spared.... Good-night. I trust she will be better! I will go on and send the telegram."