said with drawn lips quivering:

"Did you read in that letter one single word of cowardly appeal?--one
infamous word of self? If you did, I wrote in vain."

"It was because I read nothing in it of self that I made up my mind,
Louis." She stepped nearer. "Why are you so dreadfully pale and worn?
Your face is so haggard--so terrible--"

She laid one hand on his shoulder, looking up at him; then she smoothed
his forehead and hair, lightly.

"As though I could ever live without you," she said under her breath.
Then she laughed, releasing her hands, and went over to the dresser
where there was a mirror.

"I have come, at one in the morning, to pay you a call," she said,
withdrawing the long pins from her hat and taking it off. "Later I
should like a cup of chocolate, please.... Oh, there is Gladys! You
sweet thing!" she cried softly, kneeling to embrace the cat who came
silently into the room, tail waving aloft in gentle greeting.

The girl lifted Gladys onto the bed and rolled her over into a fluffy
ball and rubbed her cheeks and her ears until her furry toes curled, and
her loud and grateful purring filled the room.

Valerie, seated sideways on the edge of the bed, looked up at Neville,
laughing:

"I _must_ tell you about Sam and Helene," she said. "They are too funny!
Helene was furious because Sam wrote her a letter saying that he
intended to marry her but had not the courage to notify her, personally,
of his decision; and Helene was wild, and wrote him that he might save
himself further trouble in the matter. And they've been telephoning to
each other at intervals all day, and Sam is so afraid of her that he
dare not go to see her; and Helene was in tears when I saw her--and I
_think_ it was because she was afraid Sam wouldn't come and resume the
quarrel where she could manage it and him more satisfactorily."

She threw back her head and laughed at the recollection, stroking Gladys
the while:

"It will come out all right, of course," she added, her eyes full of
laughter; "she's been in love with Sam ever since he broke a Ming jar
and almost died of fright. But isn't it funny, Louis?--the way people
fall in love, and their various manners of informing each other!"

He was trying to smile, but the gray constraint in his face made it only
an effort. Valerie pretended not to notice it, and she rattled on gaily,
detailing her small budget of gossip and caressing Gladys--behaving as
irresponsibly and as capricio