, and she had deliberately thrust them far back in her
mind. Her lover, whom she tried hard to despise; Miss Patty, who had
shown her so many kindnesses; her mother and sister and brother--the
command to her heart had been that they should be forgotten. Standing
before her mirror and coiling her hair, her hands shook as she thought
of the death of her past. And she resolved that before long, when she
could reach a decision as to the present, she would bring at least some
of the figures back to the empty rooms.

The time had come, she told herself, to determine upon her next step. It
was neither kind nor right to play month after month with a man's
affection, allowing him to spend money upon her, to grow daily to care
more for her, if she was sure that she could never care for him. She
sighed a little at her conscientiousness, for Dick, when he kept where
he belonged, was a pleasant adjunct to her life. And her second decision
must be in regard to her profession. If she could not do better at
stenography, she must cease to spend her income trying to master the
subject. It would never do to stay on here exhausting her legacy
fruitlessly. She turned from her mirror to her desk and took up a
calendar that hung above it. To-day was May 22. School would be over on
June 24. The day after that would be Saturday. Putting a circle around
the date, June 25, she determined in her mind that she would at that
time definitely decide on her next step. This resolution taken, she was
genuinely relieved, for she knew that, as she would have obeyed such a
mark at school had it meant the handing in of a problem or a written
paper, so she would obey it now in her difficult life. It was with a
feeling of righteous satisfaction, as though the decision had already
been reached, that she went down to breakfast.

Dick was late and she slipped out of the house before he saw her. Her
day's plan was made, and for the first time in some weeks she went to
New York and back to her own church. In Brooklyn she had looked in upon
one ecclesiastical edifice after another to be dissatisfied with each,
and it was with a feeling of rest and happiness that she returned to her
first church home. But though the music was as beautiful as always,
there was no one there to remember her, and she went out a little
lonely.

Her cheeks were pink as she climbed the three flights and knocked at
Kathleen's door. Kathleen had not been cordial to her since her
defection.