Lily bent over to steady the cups; then she sank back into her seat. “I’d forgotten there was no room to dash about in—how beautifully one does have to behave in a small flat! Oh, Gerty, I wasn’t meant to be good,” she sighed out incoherently. Gerty lifted an apprehensive look to her pale face, in which the eyes shone with a peculiar sleepless lustre. “You look horribly tired, Lily; take your tea, and let me give you this cushion to lean against.” Miss Bart accepted the cup of tea, but put back the cushion with an impatient hand. “Don’t give me that! I don’t want to lean back—I shall go to sleep if I do.” “Well, why not, dear? I’ll be as quiet as a mouse,” Gerty urged affectionately. “No—no; don’t be quiet; talk to me—keep me awake! I don’t sleep at night, and in the afternoon a dreadful drowsiness creeps over me.” “You don’t sleep at night? Since when?” “I don’t know—I can’t remember.” She rose and put the empty cup on the tea-tray. “Another, and stronger, please; if I don’t keep awake now I shall see horrors tonight—perfect horrors!” “But they’ll be worse if you drink too much tea.” “No, no—give it to me; and don’t preach, please,” Lily returned imperiously. Her voice had a dangerous edge, and Gerty noticed that her hand shook as she held it out to receive the second cup. “But you look so tired: I’m sure you must be ill——” Miss Bart set down her cup with a start. “Do I look ill? Does my face show it?” She rose and walked quickly toward the little mirror above the writing-table. “What a horrid looking-glass—it’s all blotched and discoloured. Any one would look ghastly in it!” She turned back, fixing her plaintive eyes on Gerty. “You stupid dear, why do you say such odious things to me? It’s enough to make one ill to be told one looks so! And looking ill means looking ugly.” She caught Gerty’s wrists, and drew her close to the window. “After all, I’d rather know the truth. Look me straight in the face, Gerty, and tell me: am I perfectly frightful?” “You’re perfectly beautiful now, Lily: your eyes are shining, and your cheeks have grown so pink all of a sudden——” “Ah, they WERE pale, then—ghastly pale, when I came in? Why don’t you tell me frankly that I’m a wreck? My eyes are bright now because I’m so nervous—but in the mornings they look like lead. And I can see the lines coming in my face—the lines of worry and disappointment and failure! Every sleepless night leaves a new one—and how can I sleep, when I have such dreadful things to think about?” “Dreadful things—what things?” asked Gerty, gently detaching her wrists from her friend’s feverish fingers.