There was a lamp alight in the drawing room, and a circle of white from it lay on a pool at the end of the verandah. But the long French windows were closed. Dot beat on the window panes with wet fingers. 'We may as well get home,' said the mother, seeing her safe. But Wooster only picked up the reins. 'Larrie!' the sharp whisper came through the rain to the gate; the little metallic sound was made by her rings on the glass. Then the door opened and Larrie drew her into the room, the blind fell down from its pin at the movement, and now there was only a bar of light on the verandah. 'It's very cold,' said the little mother with a shiver. And Wooster turned his eyes away and drove her home. Dot went forward almost blindly towards Larrie, but he moved backwards, and she took two more steps but he fell back again. The room was small and he was against the wall now, but he put his arms behind him and stood sideways; he knew she wanted to put her head on his breast and cry. The attitudes would have looked almost comic, only something prevented it. 'I wasn't a success,' she said with a great sob. He did not speak or move a muscle. 'Oh, I _am_ so miserable,' she said. Her arms went out towards the stiff figure, but he moved again. 'Larrie!' she cried, exceeding longing and misery in her voice. But he let the cry die away into the midnight silence and he let her drop down on her knees by the sofa and sob her young heart out on the piled cushions. He had frozen altogether during the hours of waiting. Once she looked up during her bitter weeping. 'You are hard,' she said, 'cruel--like a rock, what can I do? I was wrong, I am sorry, sorry, sorry, I didn't even succeed. I was too miserable, oh, how cruel you are! what _can_ I do? I will do anything, _anything_, oh, Larrie, Larrie, Larrie, don't be hard, when I'm down, Larrie, and broken, and sorry, and miserable--oh, it is cruel, cruel.' Her sobs choked her, there were wet warm patches on the green cushion, her eyes were drenched, she was shivering with excitement and misery. There was another great silence broken only by her passionate weeping. Then she lifted her head again. 'I _can't_ bear it,' she said wildly, 'for God's sake, say something, I shall go mad if you stand there like that any longer. How unmanly you are!--oh, how cruel!--Larrie, kiss me. Oh, darling, darling, forgive me--my husband, my darling, kiss me, kiss me, _kiss_ me!' The last words died away with almost a wail, for though he looked at her all the time he did not move nearer to her and his eye took no softer light. Then she dropped her head on the cushions again, with her arms flung round them and he stood watching her, and away down in the East the stars went out, and the sickly creeping light was the new dawn.