while Dorothy,
as Rosalind had said, thought out her theories in her brain without
feeling them, Desmond felt them with her whole being; and with her whole
being, secret, subtle and absolutely relentless, she was bent on
carrying them out.

And in the summer, in the new season, Headley Richards decided that he
had no further use for Desmond. The new play had run its course at the
Independent Theatre, a course so brief that Richards had been
disappointed. He put down the failure mainly to the queerness of the
dresses and the scenery she had designed for him. Desmond's new art was
too new; people weren't ready yet for that sort of thing. At the same
time he discovered that he was really very much attached to his own wife
Ginny, and when Ginny nobly offered to give him his divorce he had
replied nobly that he didn't want one. And he left Desmond to face
the music.

Desmond's misery was acute; but it was not so hopeless as it would have
been if she could have credited Ginny Richards with any permanent power
of attraction for Headley. She knew he would come back to her. She knew
the power of her own body. She held him by the tie that was never broken
so long as it endured. He would never marry her; yet he would come back.

But in the interval between these acts there was the music.

And the first sound of the music, the changed intonations of her
landlady, frightened Desmond; for though she was older than Nicky she
was very young. And there were Desmond's people. You may forget that you
have people and behave as if they weren't there; but, if they are there,
sooner or later they will let you know it. An immense volume of sound
and some terrifying orchestral effects were contributed by Desmond's
people. So that the music was really very bad to bear.

Desmond couldn't bear it. And in her fright she thought of Nicky.

She knew that she hadn't a chance so long as he was absorbed in the
Moving Fortress. But the model was finished and set up and she was at
work on the last drawing. And no more ideas for engines were coming into
Nicky's head. The Morss Company and Nicky himself were even beginning to
wonder whether there ever would be any more.

Then Nicky thought of Desmond. And he showed that he was thinking of her
by sitting still and not talking when he was with her. She did not fill
that emptiness and spaciousness of Nicky's head, but he couldn't get her
out of it.

* * * * *

When Ver