For a long time Mahala sat thinking. Then she got up and went to her room. She shut the door, and lighting a lamp, stood before her mirror and looked intently at the reflection of her face. It was a very white face that she saw and it was gazing at her with wide, questioning eyes. Then slowly she undressed and went to bed without saying good-night to Jason. For a few days Mahala went about her work in a sort of stupefied fashion. Sometimes she lifted her head and ran her hands over her face as if it were a numb thing that needed, in some way, to be galvanized into expression by an outside agency. And then, a few days later, there were steps on the veranda, the door opened, and Jason and Ellen Ford came in together. Ellen’s face was flushed, her eyes were dancing, and her red lips were laughing. The white dress was clothing her beautifully. In a voice that was steady but slightly husky, Jason said: “Mahala, Ellen is my wife. We were married an hour ago. I am glad that you’ve learned already to love her.” There is large advantage in having been born a thoroughbred. Mahala kissed Ellen’s pink cheeks. She patted down a white ruffle that was not quite in place. She said very quietly: “Indeed I have learned to love Ellen.” She offered Jason a steady hand and hearty congratulations, and then she sat down and said evenly: “Now tell me about your plans.” Their plans were extremely simple. Ellen’s people were selling their farm and moving away. Jason meant to buy what he needed of their furniture and set up housekeeping in the home the Fords were abandoning. He told Mahala that the reason he had set up the bell in her back yard a few days before and stretched a cord to her room was so that she might ring any time during the day or night when she wanted either of them. One ring should be for him, two for Ellen. There was to be no change in anything except that Jason would not take his meals with her and instead of sleeping over the stable, he would be across the road and a few yards farther away. Otherwise they were expecting life to go on exactly as it always had. Then Ellen kissed Mahala repeatedly, and with an arm around Jason’s waist and his hand on her shoulder, they went down the road together. Mahala fled to her room and locked the door behind her, without realizing that there was no one against whom she need lock it. Once more she faced herself in her truthful mirror. “Exactly the same,” she said at last, “exactly the same.” And then she cried out at her reflection: “Fool! Fool! You big fool! You’ve worried your brain, you’ve lain awake nights, trying to figure out whether Jason was good enough for you. He’s settled your problem by letting you see that you’re not good enough for him. Fool! Fool! You big fool!”