"Of course, you're high strung, Lilly, and a high-strung woman is like a high-strung horse, has to be handled lightly. Don't exert yourself. If--if I'm embarrassing to you--talk to mother. These are the times a girl needs her mother. You go ahead and pick on me to your heart's content. I--I'm a pretty slow kind of fellow about some things. Never been around women enough. Come, it's ten-thirty-six. You need all the sleep you can get. Come, Lilly. Why--I--I've been thick-headed--that's all." She suffered him to kiss her on the cheek as she turned her face from him. "Have it your own way," she said, limp with a sudden sense of futility and as if all the reflex resiliency had oozed out of her. "We're all right together, Lilly. Just don't you worry your head. We'll get adjusted in no time. You and--and mother talk things over to-morrow. I've been a thick-headed old fool. Pshaw! I--Pshaw!" She moved to the dresser, removing pins until her hair fell shiningly all over her, brushing through its thick fluff and weaving it into two heavy braids over her shoulders. He laid hesitant and rather clumsy hands to its thickness. "Fine head of hair." She jumped back as if a pain had stabbed her. "Don't forget, Albert, to lock the downstairs windows." He was full of new comprehensions. "I understand. Take your time to undress, Lilly. I'll be about fifteen minutes locking up, and I want to attach some new safety locks I brought with me. Everything all right?" "Yes." "You don't need to keep the light burning." "I won't." He opened his lips to say something, but, instead, turned and went out, the closed half of his collar drenched in perspiration. When he returned, after a generous fifteen minutes, the room was in darkness except for a thin veil of whiteness from the arc light in the street. Between the sweetly new sheets the long, supple mound of Lilly lay along the bed, her bare arms close to her body. Her breathing was sufficiently deep to simulate sleep. He undressed in the darkness and the silence. Half the night through he tossed, keeping carefully to the bed edge, and often she heard him sigh out and was conscious that he mopped continually at the back of his hands. Once he whispered her name. "Lilly--awake?" She deepened her breathing. About four o'clock he dozed off, swooning deeply into sleep, his lips opening and a slight snore coming. She lay with her eyes open to the darkness, letting it lave over her as if it were water and she had drowned in it with her gaze wide.