y."

"Time will decide that. In any case he's coming on Monday for my
answer. And that will be 'yes.' So you and Ralph can have your banns
put up with a clear conscience--as the only just cause and impediment
is now removed."

Penelope was silent.

"You ought to be rather pleased with me than otherwise," insisted Nan.

When at length Penelope replied, it was with a certain gravity.

"My dear, matrimony is one of the affairs of life in which it is fatal
to accept second best. You can do it in hats and frocks--it's merely a
matter of appearances--although you'll never get quite the same
satisfaction out of them. But you can't do it in boots and shoes. You
have to walk in those--and the second best wear out at once. Matrimony
is the boots and shoes of life."

"Well, at least it's better to have the second quality--than to go
barefoot."

"I don't think so. Nan, do wait a little. Don't, in a fit of angry
pique over Maryon Rooke, go and bind yourself irrevocably to someone
else."

"Penny, the bluntness of your methods is deplorable. Instead of
insinuating that I am accepting Roger as a _pis-aller_, it would be
more seemly if you would congratulate me and--wish me luck."

"I do--oh, I do, Nan. But, my dear--"

"No buts, please. Surely I know my own business best? I assure you,
Roger and I will be a model couple--an example, probably, to you and
Ralph! You'll--you'll say 'yes' to him to-morrow when he comes back
again, won't you, Penny?"

"He isn't coming back to-morrow."

"I think he is." Nan smiled. "You'll say 'yes' then?"

Penelope looked at her very straightly.

"Would you marry Roger in any case--whether I accepted Ralph or not?"
she asked.

Nan lied courageously.

"I should marry Roger in any case," she answered quietly.

A long silence ensued. Presently Nan broke it, her voice a little
sharpened by the tension of the moment.

"So when Ralph comes back you'll be--kind to him, Penny? You'll give
him the answer he wants?"

Penelope's face was hidden by a curtain of dark hair. After a moment
an affirmative came softly from behind the curtain.

With a sudden impulse Nan threw her arms round her and kissed her.

"Oh, Penny! Penny! I do hope you'll be _very_ happy!" she exclaimed
in a stifled voice. Then slipped from the room like a shadow--very
noiselessly and swiftly--to lie on her bed hour after hour staring up
into the blackness with wide, tearless eyes until sheer bodily