ed to remember what the occasion was and who had uttered them.

Then as she looked at Kemper, she found herself wondering if they would
be obliged, in order to make life bearable, to lie to each other every
day they lived? The letter which she had destroyed was her half of this
lie, she saw, and it seemed to her that Kemper's share was in his old
love for Jennie Alta. But, to her surprise, when she thought of this it
aroused no torment, hardly any disturbance in her heart, for Kemper and
his love for her appeared to her now in an entirely new and different
aspect, and she realised that because of the lie between them, even the
emotion he aroused in her had turned worthless in her eyes.

PART IV

RECONCILIATION

CHAPTER I

THE SECRET CHAMBERS

Waking in the night, with a start, Laura asked herself why she had
burned the letter. As she lay there in the darkness it seemed to her
that the sudden light shone in her thoughts again, and she saw
everything made clear to her as she had seen it while she held Jennie
Alta's hand. In that instant she had looked beyond the small personal
emotions to the woman's soul with its burden of greed and sensuality,
and because she had been able to do this, she had felt herself to be
composed and released from hatred. To discern the soul was to feel not
only tolerance, but pity for the flesh, and it appeared to her now that
in that one moment she had ceased to be herself alone, and had shared in
the divine wisdom which the sudden light had revealed to her in her
breast. Yet the instant afterward her personality had triumphed and she
had burned the letter!

The illumination within her faded now, and as she lay there with wide
open eyes, she saw only the surrounding darkness. Her own motives were
still vague to her; when she tried to remember the prompting of her
thoughts she could recall only a physical pain which had entered her
bosom while she looked at the large white envelope upon the blotter.
"Before this I had never lied in my life," she said, "I had never been
capable of the slightest dishonest act, I had even taken a pride in my
truth like the pride some women take in beauty--and yet I did this thing
without effort and I do not know now why I did, nor what I thought of at
the time, nor whether I regretted it the moment afterward."

With a resolution which had seldom failed her, she attempted to banish
the recollection from her mind; and turning her face from the