it. Forgive him indeed; well, if those were
the terms of forgiveness, he promised himself that he should deserve it.
Meanwhile he must conceal his resentment.

"I'm so sorry, darling," he said, giving the letter back to Karen. "We
shall have to cheer her up, shan't we? When she sees how very happy you
are with me I am sure she'll feel happier." He wasn't at all sure.

"I don't know, Gregory. I am afraid that my happiness cannot make her
less lonely."

Karen's griefs were not to be lightly dispersed. But she was not a
person to enlarge upon them. After another moment she pointed out
something from the window and laughed; but the unshadowed gladness that
he had imagined for their meeting was overcast.

Betty awaited them with tea in her Pont Street drawing-room, a room of
polished, glittering, softly lustrous surfaces. Precious objects stood
grouped on little Empire tables or ranged in Empire cabinets. Flat, firm
cushions of rose-coloured satin stood against the backs of Empire chairs
and sofas. On the walls were French engravings and a delicate portrait
of Betty done at the time of her marriage by Boutet de Monvel. The room,
like Betty herself, combined elegance and cordiality.

"I was there, you know, at the very beginning," she said, taking Karen's
hands and scanning her with her jewel-like eyes. "It was love at first
sight. He asked who you were at once and I'm pleased to think that it
was I who gave him his first information. Now that I look back upon it,"
said Betty, taking her place at the tea-table and holding Karen still
with her bright and friendly gaze, "I remember that he was far more
interested in you than in anything else that evening. I don't believe
that Madame Okraska existed for him." Betty was drawing on her
imagination in a manner that she took for granted to be pleasing.

"I should be sorry to think that," Karen observed and Gregory was
relieved to see that she did not take Betty's supposition seriously. She
watched her pretty hands move among the teacups with an air of pleased
interest.

"Would you really? You would want him to retain all his aesthetic
faculties even while he was falling in love? Do you think one could?"
Betty asked her questions smiling. "Or perhaps you think that one would
fall in love the more securely from listening to Madame Okraska at the
same time. I think perhaps I should. I do admire her so much. I hope now
that some day I shall know her. She must be, I am sure, as l