head. Hannah dropped the fork,
the handle of the frying pan and crossed the room swiftly, seizing Janet
by the shoulders.

"Is she gone? I knew it, I felt it all along. I thought she'd done
something she was afraid to tell about--I tried to ask her, but I
couldn't--I couldn't! And now she's gone. Oh, my God, I'll never forgive
myself!"

The unaccustomed sight of her mother's grief was terrible. For an instant
only she clung to Janet, then becoming mute, she sat down in the kitchen
chair and stared with dry, unseeing eyes at the wall. Her face twitched.
Janet could not bear to look at it, to see the torture in her mother's
eyes. She, Janet, seemed suddenly to have grown old herself, to have
lived through ages of misery and tragedy.... She was aware of a pungent
odour, went to the stove, picked up the fork, and turned the steak. Now
and then she glanced at Hannah. Grief seemed to have frozen her. Then,
from the dining-room she heard footsteps, and Edward stood in the
doorway.

"Well, what's the matter with breakfast?" he asked. From where he stood
he could not see Hannah's face, but gradually his eyes were drawn to her
figure. His intuition was not quick, and some moments passed before the
rigidity of the pose impressed itself upon him.

"Is mother sick?" he asked falteringly.

Janet went to him. But it was Hannah who spoke.

"Lise has gone," she said.

"Lise--gone," Edward repeated. "Gone where?"

"She's run away--she's disgraced us," Hannah replied, in a monotonous,
dulled voice.

Edward did not seem to understand, and presently Janet felt impelled to
break the silence.

"She didn't come home last night, father."

"Didn't come home? Mebbe she spent the night with a friend," he said.

It seemed incredible, at such a moment, that he could still be hopeful.

"No, she's gone, I tell you, she's lost, we'll never lay eyes on her
again. My God, I never thought she'd come to this, but I might have
guessed it. Lise! Lise! To think it's my Lise!"

Hannah's voice echoed pitifully through the silence of the flat. So
appealing, so heartbroken was the cry one might have thought that Lise,
wherever she was, would have heard it. Edward was dazed by the shock, his
lower lip quivered and fell. He walked over to Hannah's chair and put his
hand on her shoulder.

"There, there, mother," he pleaded. "If she's gone, we'll find her, we'll
bring her back to you."

Hannah shook her head. She pushed back her chair abruptly an