Of course, with that scene in the parlor, all the intimacies of youth were broken short off; although between the two girls some sort of relationship was patched up. Nannie, thrown suddenly into the whirlpool of her brother's emotions, was almost beside herself with distress; she was nearly twenty-eight years old, but this was her first contact with the primitive realities of life. With that contact,--which made her turn away her horrified, virginal eyes; was the misery of knowing that Blair was suffering. She was ready to annihilate David, had such a thing been possible, to give her brother what he wanted. As David could not be made non-existent, she did her best to comfort Blair by trying to make Elizabeth forgive him. The very next day she came to plead that Blair might come himself to ask for pardon. Elizabeth would not listen: "Please don't speak of it." "But Elizabeth--" "I am perfectly furious, and I am very disgusted. I never want to see Blair again!" At which Blair's sister lifted her head. "Of course, he ought not to have spoken to you, but I think you forget that he loved you long before David did." "Nonsense!" Elizabeth cried out impatiently. But Nannie's tears touched her. "Nannie, I can't see him, and I won't; but I'll come and see you when he is not there." At which Nannie flared again. "If you are angry at my brother, and can't forgive just a momentary, a passing feeling,--which, after all, Elizabeth, _is_ a compliment; at least everybody says it's a compliment to have a man say he loves you--" "Not if you're engaged to another man!" Elizabeth burst in, scarlet to her temples. "Blair loved you before David thought of you." "Now, Nannie, don't be silly." "If you can't overlook it, because of our old friendship, you will have to drop me, too, Elizabeth." Nannie was so pitiful and trembling that Elizabeth put her arms around her. "I'll never drop you, dear old Nannie!" So, as far as the two girls were concerned, the habit of affection persisted; but Mrs. Maitland was not annoyed by having Elizabeth present when Blair came to supper. Blair did not come to supper very often now; he did not come to the Works. "Is your brother sick?" Sarah Maitland asked her stepdaughter three or four days later. "He hasn't been at his desk since Monday. What's the matter with him?" "He is worried about something, Mamma."