ancing through her midday mail some five days later,
uttered a slight exclamation as she withdrew her finger-tip from the
flap of the envelope she had begun to open.

It was a black sleety day, with an east wind bowing the trees beyond the
drenched window-panes, and the two friends, after luncheon, had
withdrawn to the library, where Justine sat writing notes for Bessy,
while the latter lay back in her arm-chair, in the state of dreamy
listlessness into which she always sank when not under the stimulus of
amusement or exercise.

She sat suddenly upright as her eyes fell on the letter.

"I beg your pardon! I thought it was for me," she said, holding it out
to Justine.

The latter reddened as she glanced at the superscription. It had not
occurred to her that Amherst would reply to her appeal: she had pictured
him springing on the first north-bound train, perhaps not even pausing
to announce his return to his wife.... And to receive his letter under
Bessy's eye was undeniably embarrassing, since Justine felt the
necessity of keeping her intervention secret.

But under Bessy's eye she certainly was--it continued to rest on her
curiously, speculatively, with an under-gleam of malicious significance.

"So stupid of me--I can't imagine why I should have expected my husband
to write to me!" Bessy went on, leaning back in lazy contemplation of
her other letters, but still obliquely including Justine in her angle of
vision.

The latter, after a moment's pause, broke the seal and read.

"Millfield, Georgia.
"My dear Miss Brent,

"Your letter reached me yesterday and I have thought it over
carefully. I appreciate the feeling that prompted it--but I don't
know that any friend, however kind and discerning, can give the
final advice in such matters. You tell me you are sure my wife will
not ask me to return--well, under present conditions that seems to
me a sufficient reason for staying away.

"Meanwhile, I assure you that I have remembered all you said to me
that day. I have made no binding arrangement here--nothing to
involve my future action--and I have done this solely because you
asked it. This will tell you better than words how much I value
your advice, and what strong reasons I must have for not following
it now.

"I suppose there are no more exploring parties in this weather. I
wish I could show Cicely some of the birds down here.