"

Lester saw that she needed companionship badly. "Where is your
brother George?" he asked.

"He's in Rochester, but he couldn't come. Bass said he was
married," she added.

"There isn't any other member of the family you could persuade to
come and live with you?"

"I might get William, but I don't know where he is."

"Why not try that new section west of Jackson Park," he suggested,
"if you want a house here in Chicago? I see some nice cottages out
that way. You needn't buy. Just rent until you see how well you're
satisfied."

Jennie thought this good advice because it came from Lester. It was
good of him to take this much interest in her affairs. She wasn't
entirely separated from him after all. He cared a little. She asked
him how his wife was, whether he had had a pleasant trip, whether he
was going to stay in Chicago. All the while he was thinking that he
had treated her badly. He went to the window and looked down into
Dearborn Street, the world of traffic below holding his attention. The
great mass of trucks and vehicles, the counter streams of hurrying
pedestrians, seemed like a puzzle. So shadows march in a dream. It was
growing dusk, and lights were springing up here and there.

"I want to tell you something, Jennie," said Lester, finally
rousing himself from his fit of abstraction. "I may seem peculiar to
you, after all that has happened, but I still care for you--in my
way. I've thought of you right along since I left. I thought it good
business to leave you--the way things were. I thought I liked
Letty well enough to marry her. From one point of view it still seems
best, but I'm not so much happier. I was just as happy with you as I
ever will be. It isn't myself that's important in this transaction
apparently; the individual doesn't count much in the situation. I
don't know whether you see what I'm driving at, but all of us are more
or less pawns. We're moved about like chessmen by circumstances over
which we have no control."

"I understand, Lester," she answered. "I'm not complaining. I know
it's for the best."

"After all, life is more or less of a farce," he went on a little
bitterly. "It's a silly show. The best we can do is to hold our
personality intact. It doesn't appear that integrity has much to do
with it."

Jennie did not quite grasp what he was talking about, but she knew
it meant that he was not entirely satisfied with himself and was sorry
for her.

"Don't worry over me, Les