delicacy too; but as it is----"

Eleanor got up.

"I think I'll take my lack of delicacy home," she said. "Tell Morson to
send for the motor, will you, Bobby? Good night Lydia. I've had a
perfectly horrid evening."

"Good night," said Lydia with a fierce little beck of her head.

Bobby saw Eleanor to the car, and sat with her some time in the hall
while it was being brought round.

"No one could blame you for being furious; but you're not angry at her,
are you, Eleanor?" he said.

"Of course I'm angry!" answered Eleanor. "She's too impossible, Bobby.
You can't keep on with people who let you in for this sort of thing. I
could have had a perfectly pleasant evening at home--and to come out for
a row like this!"

"She doesn't do it often."

"Often! No, there wouldn't be any question then."

"She's been perfectly charming at the Emmonses'--gay and friendly, and
everyone crazy about her. And by the way, Eleanor, I didn't say O'Bannon
was a drunkard."

"Of course you didn't," said Eleanor.

"But he used to go on the most smashing sprees in college, and I told
her about one of those and made her promise not to tell."

"A lot that would influence Lydia."

The car was at the door now, and as he put her into it he asked, "Oh,
don't you feel so sorry for her sometimes that you could almost weep
over her?"

"I certainly do not!" said Eleanor.

Turning from the front door, Bobby ran upstairs and knocked at Miss
Bennett's door. He found her sunk in an enormous chair, looking very
pathetic and more like an unhappy child than a middle-aged woman.

"It isn't bearable," she said. "Life under these conditions is too
disagreeable. I don't complain of her never noticing all the little
sacrifices one makes--all the trouble one takes for her sake. But when
she's absolutely rude--just vulgarly, grossly rude as she was this
evening----"

"Miss Bennett," said Bobby seriously, "when things go wrong with women
they cry, and when things go wrong with men they swear. Lydia takes a
little from both sexes. These outbursts are her equivalent for feminine
tears or masculine profanity."

Miss Bennett looked up at him with her starlike eyes shining with
emotion.

"But someone must teach her that she can't behave like that. I can't do
it. I can only teach by being kind--endlessly kind--and she can't learn
from that. So the best thing for both of us is for me to leave her and
let someone else try."

Bobby sat down and took her t