ld arrive for her, an hour so
fraught with twinges, pangs, and thrusts the like of which had been
alien to her experience. She could bear it no longer, and she took her
lamp and went back to her own room. She listened attentively to detect
any sound that might come from Jane's chamber. Was it a voice, a low,
querulous voice? Yes, it must be; and laggingly she went to respond to
it.

Jane lay with her eyes wide open in almost infantile inquiry.

"I see it didn't work," she smiled, wanly. "I didn't take enough, eh?
Well, well, it doesn't matter, Liz. I'd rather go the regular,
old-fashioned way, after all. I seem to have slept off that other
feeling. I'm not afraid now--no, no, not a bit! I've had my day, old
pal, and the richest women of the land haven't had a better time. I
dreamt that all the girls were here--Ide, and Lou, High-fling Em, and--"

"They were here this afternoon," Lizzie fished from her turgid
consciousness, "but they left. They were sorry."

"Oh, I know, but not one of the bunch thought for one minute that it
would come to them, too, and that's the joke of it! Selfish
fools--nasty, sly, and catty even over a corpse. They sent Mag
Sebastian flowers, but it was after Mag was out of the game. Huh! I
guess I know 'em, Liz, and so do you. Shucks! you won't cry when I'm
carted off--not on your life! But there is _one_ thing, yes, one thing,
Liz, and it lies just between you and me. I don't know why it hangs on
to me so tight. Huh!" Jane forced a rasping, throaty laugh that fairly
snarled with insincerity. "I mean--I mean--oh, hell! you know what I
mean!"

"I--I don't think I do," Lizzie faltered, trying to meet Jane's
unwavering stare.

"Oh, come off, come off!" Jane sniffed. "'Jurors, look on the
prisoner--prisoner, look on the jurors'! You know what I'm talking
about. I heard the doctor telling you last night about John and Dora.
Listen. I've had my fun and the good things of life, but did _my
fun_--you know what I mean--did _my fun_ come between me and--well--my
duty to the kid's mother? And more than that--more than that--did my fun
and yours, Liz, drive a young wife from a happy home with a hanging
head, cause a fine boy and a helpless little girl to run from us as from
smallpox into roasting flames--"

"Hush, hush!" Lizzie gasped, and she rose to her feet, quivering and
pallid.

"Oh, well, never mind, Liz!" Jane sighed wearily. "You can't face that
point any better than I can, but you hold a b