She dropped her head upon his shoulder and wept as if grief instead of
joy were sweeping over her. Presently she raised her tear-wet face and
said:

"I'm going to marry Con, dear, as soon as he wants me. I hate to say
this, Brace, but it is a little as if Conning had come home to me from
an honourable war--a bit mutilated. I must try to get used to him and I
will! I will!"

Kendall held her to him close. "Lyn, I never knew until this moment how
much I have to humbly thank God for. Oh! if men only could see ahead,
young fellows I mean, they would not come to a woman--mutilated. I
haven't much to offer, heaven knows, but--well, Lyn, I can offer a clear
record to some woman--some day!"

All that day Lynda thought of the future. Sitting in her workshop with
the toy-like emblems of her craft at hand she thought and thought. It
seemed to her, struggling alone, that men and women, after all, walked
through life--largely apart. They had built bridges with love and
necessity and over them they crossed to touch each other for a space,
but oh! how she longed for a common highway where she and Con could walk
always together! She wanted this so much, so much!

At five o'clock she telephoned to Truedale. She knew he generally went
to his apartment at that hour.

"I--I want to see you, Con," she said.

"Yes, Lyn. Where?"

She felt the answer meant much, so she paused.

"After dinner, Con, and come right up to--to my workshop."

"I will be there--early."

Lynda was never more her merry old self than she was at dinner; but she
was genuinely relieved when Brace told her he was going out.

"What are you going to do, Lyn?" he asked.

"Why--go up to my workshop. I've neglected things horribly, lately."

"I thought that night work was taboo?"

"I rarely work at night, Brace. And you--where are you going?"

"Up to Morrell's."

Lynda raised her eyebrows.

"Mrs. Morrell's sister has come from the West, Lyn. She's very
interesting. She's _voted_, and it hasn't hurt her."

"Why should it? And"--Lynda came around the table and paused as she was
about to go out of the room "I wonder if she could pass the coffee-urn
test, on a pinch?"

Kendall coloured vividly. "I've been thinking more of my end of the
table since I saw her than I ever have before in my life. It isn't all
coffee-urn, Lyn."

"Indeed it isn't! I must see this little womanly Lochinvar at once. Is
she pretty--pretty as Mrs. John?"

"Why--I don't know. I h