She blushed violently. It was the scar that had appealed so strongly to her youthful imagination. And then, raising her glance furtively to see whether her embarrassment were observed, she was profoundly disconcerted at the sight of the tears that were standing in the other woman's eyes. Mrs Lawless moved away. "I don't know," she said, "why I put that portrait there to-day... There's a connection, I suppose, between it and one's wasted youth. The portrait stands for waste... It is the sight of it that has set me thinking back." She crossed to the piano and lifted the frame as though her purpose were to remove it. Then, changing her mind, she set it again in its place, and came slowly back. "I wonder what you think of my getting you here and depressing you with my reminiscences," she said in a lighter tone. "It wasn't my intention. I suppose it's due to reaction following the shock of recent events. We'll flee from gloomy subjects, shall we? ... Come out with me. I want to show you my garden..." Whether it was owing to Mrs Lawless' display of emotion, or the unexpected sight of the photograph in her room, or to both reasons combined, added to the strange new quality in her voice when she spoke of the portrait's original, Julie conceived the idea that she too loved this man with the dominating personality,--the strangely aloof manner,-- the air of quiet detachment that made him at once a figure attractive and unapproachable, so that women, while desirous of knowing him, hesitated to solicit an introduction. It was not strange that she should love him--that to Julie was a natural, almost an inevitable, consequence of knowing him--but it was incredible that he could remain indifferent to her regard. The only explanation she could arrive at was that he was ignorant of it. Julie understood at last the tragedy that occasionally looked out from Mrs Lawless' beautiful eyes; and in her sympathy with her the pain at her own heart grew less. She had no thought of competing against this peerlessly lovely woman. It was unaccountable to her by the light of her new understanding that Lawless should have troubled to show any interest in her at all. She wondered whether, if she ever saw him again, she would find the courage to tell him the secret she had surprised...