She paused, staring down at the table, one hand supporting her forehead, the other wandering idly among the breakfast things. Her look was sombre and far away. Alix, standing, watched her distressedly, through a long minute of silence. "Well!" Cherry said lifelessly, looking up at her sister with dulled eyes. "What now? It's still 'for better or worse,' I suppose?" Alix sat down, and for a moment covered her face with a tight-pressed hand. When she took it away, there was new serenity and resolution in her tired face. "No," she said, with a great sigh, "I think perhaps you're right! He hasn't--he should have no claim on you now!" "Alix," Cherry demanded, "would you forgive him?" "Perhaps I wouldn't," Alix said, after thought. "PERHAPS you wouldn't!" Cherry echoed, incredulously. "Well, I'm not very good," Alix said, hesitatingly. "But a vow is a vow, you know. If it was limited, then my--my fulfillment of it would be limited, I suppose. Of course," she added, honestly, "I'm talking for myself only!" "And you would quietly forgive and forget!" demanded the little sister, in bitter scorn. "I say I HOPE I would!" Alix corrected her. "Even if this IS true"--she added, with a glance at the lavender letter--"still, I suppose the rule of forgiving seventy times seven times--" Cherry interrupted her with a burst of bitter and rebellious weeping. "Oh, my God, what shall I do!" she sobbed, with her bright head dropped on her arm. Alix saw Kow come to the door, look at them speculatively, and disappear, and thought in her shaken soul that things in a household were demoralized indeed when pretense before the servants was no longer maintained. "Don't cry, Cherry, Cherry!" she said, her own tears brimming over. She came to kneel beside her sister, and they locked their arms about each other, and their wet cheeks touched. "Don't cry, dear!" she said, tenderly. "It'll all come straight, somehow, and we'll wonder why we took it so hard!" "The thing that breaks--my--heart!" sobbed Cherry, clinging tight, "is that it is all my fault!" "Oh, no; it's not, Cherry. You were too young. And it's only one of so many thousands of unhappy marriages!" Alix argued, soothingly. "Now listen to me, Sis," she began briskly, as soon as Cherry had somewhat regained her composure. "We'll ascertain about this letter; that's only fair. If Martin denies it--" "Of course he'll deny it!" Cherry interrupted, from the bitter knowledge she had of him. Alix again felt daunted for a second by the sheer ugliness and sordidness of the matter, but she returned to the charge bravely.