the fire. The door opened
suddenly, and the younger woman came in.

"I had to come--I couldn't wait. You have heard, he was married this
morning? Oh, do you think it is true? Do help me!" She put out her
hands.

"Sit down. Yes, it is quite true."

"Oh, it is so terrible, and I didn't know anything! Did you ever say
anything to him?" She caught the woman's hands.

"I never saw him again after the day you were here,--so I could not
speak to him,--but I did what I could." She stood looking passively into
the fire.

"And they say she is quite a child, only eighteen. They say he only saw
her three times before he proposed to her. Do you think it is true?"

"Yes, it is quite true."

"He can't love her. They say he's only marrying her for her rank and her
money."

The woman turned quickly.

"What right have you to say that? No one but I know him. What need has
he of any one's rank or wealth? He is greater than them all! Older women
may have failed him; he has needed to turn to her beautiful, fresh,
young life to compensate him. She is a woman whom any man might have
loved, so young and beautiful; her family are famed for their intellect.
If he trains her, she may make him a better wife than any other woman
would have done."

"Oh, but I can't bear it--I can't bear it!" The younger woman sat down
in the chair. "She will be his wife, and have his children."

"Yes." The elder woman moved quickly. "One wants to have the child, and
lay its head on one's breast and feed it." She moved quickly. "It would
not matter if another woman bore it, if one had it to take care of." She
moved restlessly.

"Oh, no, I couldn't bear it to be hers. When I think of her I feel as if
I were dying; all my fingers turn cold; I feel dead. Oh, you were only
his friend; you don't know!"

The older spoke softly and quickly, "Don't you feel a little gentle
to her when you think she's going to be his wife and the mother of his
child? I would like to put my arms round her and touch her once, if she
would let me. She is so beautiful, they say."

"Oh, I could never bear to see her; it would kill me. And they are so
happy together today! He is loving her so!"

"Don't you want him to be happy?" The older woman looked down at her.
"Have you never loved him, at all?"

The younger woman's face was covered with her hands. "Oh, it's so
terrible, so dark! and I shall go on living year after year, always in
this awful pain! Oh, if I could only die!"