love and sacrifice, only to be relegated to a second place at the first
moment of independence. Joan saw this then. Her mother's altered
attitude, and her own feeling of having grown out of maternal
possession brought it before her. She saw the underlying drama of this
small inevitable scene in the divine comedy of life and was touched by
a great sympathy and made sorry and ashamed.

But pride came between her and a desire to go down on her knees at her
mother's side, make a clean breast of everything and beg for advice and
help.

And so these two, between whom there should have been complete
confidence, were like people speaking to each other from opposite banks
of a stream, conscious of being overheard.

X

Day after day went by with not a word from Martin. April was slipping
off the calendar. A consistent blue sky hung over a teeming city that
grew warm and dry beneath a radiant sun. Winter forgotten, spring an
overgrown boy, the whole town underwent a subtle change. Its rather
sullen winter expression melted into a smile, and all its foreign
characteristics and color broke out once more under the influence of
sun and blue sky. Alone among the great cities of the world stands New
York for contrariety and contrast. Its architecture is as various as
its citizenship, its manners are as dissimilar as its accents, its
moods as diverse as its climate. Awnings appeared, straw hats peppered
the streets like daisies in long fields, shadows moved, days
lengthened, and the call of the country fell on city ears like the thin
wistful notes of the pipes of Pan.

Brought up against a black wall Joan left the Roundabout, desisted from
joy-riding, and, spending most of her time with her mother, tried
secretly and without any outward sign, to regain her equilibrium. She
saw nothing of Alice and the set, now beginning to scatter, in which
Alice had placed her. She was consistently out to Gilbert Palgrave and
the other men who had been gathering hotly at her heels. Her policy of
"who cares?" had received a shock and left her reluctantly and
impatiently serious. She had withdrawn temporarily into a backwater in
order to think things over and wait for Martin to reappear. It seemed
to her that her future way of life was in his hands. If Martin came
back soon and caught her in her present mood she would play the game
according to the rules. If he stayed away or, coming back, persisted in
considering her as a kid and treating