abandon him, to lose him for those who needed what he could give, to
send him back to the enemy. She had told Pink she could secure an ally
for a price, and she was the price. There was not an ounce of melodrama
in her, as she stood facing the situation. She considered, quite simply,
that she had assumed an obligation which she must carry out. Perhaps her
pride was dictating to her also. To go crawling home, bowed to the dust,
to admit that life had beaten her, to face old Anthony's sneers and her
mother's pity--that was hard for any Cardew.

She remembered Elinor's home-comings of years ago, the strained air of
the household, the whispering servants, and Elinor herself shut away,
or making her rare, almost furtive visits downstairs when her father was
out of the house.

No, she could not face that.

Her own willfulness had brought her to this pass; she faced that
uncompromisingly. She would marry Louis, and hold him to his promise,
and so perhaps out of all this misery some good would come. But at the
thought of marriage she found herself trembling violently. With no love
and no real respect to build on, with an intuitive knowledge of the
man's primitive violences, the reluctance toward marriage with him which
she had always felt crystallized into something very close to dread.

But a few minutes later she went upstairs, quite steady again, and fully
determined. At Elinor's door she tapped lightly, and she heard movements
within. Then Elinor opened the door wide. She had been lying on her bed,
and automatically after closing the door she began to smooth it. Lily
felt a wave of intense pity for her.

"I wish you would go away from here, Aunt Elinor," she said.

Elinor glanced up, without surprise.

"Where could I go?"

"If you left him definitely, you could go home."

Elinor shook her head, dumbly, and her passivity drove Lily suddenly to
desperation.

"You know what is going on," she said, her voice strained. "You don't
believe it is right; you know it is wicked. Clothe it in all the fine
language in the world, Aunt Elinor, and it is still wicked. If you stay
here you condone it. I won't. I am going away."

"I wish you had never come, Lily."

"It's too late for that," Lily said, stonily. "But it is not too late
for you to get away."

"I shall stay," Elinor said, with an air of finality. But Lily made one
more effort.

"He is killing you."

"No, he is killing himself." Suddenly Elinor flared into a p