She laid aside her work and rose to her slender height, smilingly, as though the elder woman had terminated the interview; and Lily, utterly confounded, rose, too, as Valerie offered her hand in adieu. "Miss West," she began, not perfectly sure of what she was saying, "I--scarcely dare thank you--for what you have said--for--my--brother's--sake--" Valerie laughed: "I would do much more than that for him, Mrs. Collis.... Only I must first be sure of what is really the best way to serve him." Lily's gloved hand tightened over hers; and she laid the other one over it: "You are so generous, so sweet about it!" she said unsteadily. "And I look into your face and I know you are good--_good_--all the way through--" Valerie laughed again: "There isn't any real evil in me.... And I am not astonishingly generous--merely sensible. I knew from the first that I couldn't marry him--if I really loved him," she added, under her breath. They were at the door now. Lily passed out into the entry, halted, turned impulsively, the tears in her eyes, and put both arms tenderly around the girl. "You poor child," she whispered. "You dear, brave, generous girl! God knows whether I am right or wrong. I am only trying to do my duty--trying to do what is best for him." Valerie looked at her curiously: "Yes, you cannot choose but think of him if you really love him.... That is the way it is with love." Afterward, sewing by the window, she could scarcely see the stitches for the clinging tears. But they dried on her lashes; not one fell. And when Rita came in breezily to join her at luncheon she was ready, her costume mended and folded in her hand-satchel, and there remained scarcely even a redness of the lids to betray her. That evening she did not stop for tea at Neville's studio; and, later, when he telephoned, asking her to dine with him, she pleaded the feminine prerogative of tea in her room and going to bed early for a change. But she lay awake until midnight trying to think out a _modus vivendi_ for Neville and herself which, would involve no sacrifice on his part and no unhappiness for anybody except, perhaps, for herself. The morning was dull and threatened rain, and she awoke with a slight headache, remembering that she had dreamed all night of weeping. In her mail there was a note from Querida asking her to stop for a few moments at his studio that afternoon, several business communications, and a long letter from Mrs. Collis which she read lying in bed, one hand resting on her aching temples: "MY DEAR Miss WEST: Our interview this morning has left me with a somewhat confused sense of indebtedness to you and an admiration and respect for your character which I wished very much to convey to you this morning, but which I was at a loss to express. "You are not only kind and reasonable, but so entirely unselfish that my own attitude in this unhappy matter has seemed to me harsh and ungracious.