e
found herself still shaken by the sureness of his attitude.

Pip on his way down-town stopped in to order Winifred's roses, and the
next day he went to her apartment and unburdened his heart.

"If it was in the day of duels I'd call him out. Just at this moment I am
in the mood for pistols or poison, I'm not sure which."

"Why not try--patience?"

He glanced at her quickly. "You think she'll tire?"

"I think--it can never happen. For Richard's sake I--hope not."

"Why for his sake?"

Winifred smiled. "I'd like to see him marry little Anne."

"The school-teacher?"

"Yes. Oh, I am broken-hearted to think he's spoiling Nancy's dreams for
him. There was something so idyllic in them. And now he'll marry Eve."

"You say that as if it were a tragedy."

"It is, for him and for her. Eve was never made to be poor."

"Don't tell her that. She took my head off. Said she'd rather have a
crust of bread with Richard----"

"Oh, oh!"

"Than a palace with me."

"Poor Pip. It wasn't nice of her."

"I shall make her eat her words."

Winifred shook her head. "Don't be hard on her, Pip. We women are so
helpless in our loves. Richard might make her happy if he cared enough,
but he doesn't. Perhaps Eve will be broadened and deepened by it all. I
don't know. No one knows."

"I know this. That you and Tony seem to get a lot out of things, Win."

"Of marriage? We do. Yet we've had all of the little antagonisms and
differences. But underneath it we know--that we're made for each other.
And that helps. It has helped us to push the wrong things out of our
lives and to hold on to the right ones."

Philip's young face was set. "I wanted to have my chance with Eve. We are
young and pretty light-weight on the surface, but life together might
make us a bit more like you and Tony. And now Richard is spoiling
things."

Back at Crossroads, Nancy was trying to convince her son that he was not
spoiling things for her. "I have always been such a dreamer, dear boy.
It was silly for me to think that I could stand between you and your big
future. I have written to Sulie Tyson, and she'll stay with me, and you
can run down for week-ends--and I'll always have David."

"Mother, let me go to Eve and tell her----"

"Tell her what?"

"That I shall stay--with you."

She was white with the whiteness which had never left her since he had
told her that he was going to marry Eve.

"Hickory-Dickory, if I kept you here in the end you would