ess, to feel that she had irrevocably given herself and taken--all. A
longing to see Ditmar again invaded her: he would take an early train, he
would be at the office by nine. How could she wait until then?

With a movement that had become habitual, subconscious, she reached out
her hand to arouse her sister. The coldness of the sheets on the right
side of the bed sent a shiver through her--a shiver of fear.

"Lise!" she called. But there was no answer from the darkness. And Janet,
trembling, her heart beating wildly, sprang from the bed, searched for
the matches, and lit the gas. There was no sign of Lise; her clothes,
which she had the habit of flinging across the chairs, were nowhere to be
seen. Janet's eyes fell on the bureau, marked the absence of several
knick-knacks, including a comb and brush, and with a sudden sickness of
apprehension she darted to the wardrobe and flung open the doors. In the
bottom were a few odd garments, above was the hat with the purple
feather, now shabby and discarded, on the hooks a skirt and jacket Lise
wore to work at the Bagatelle in bad weather. That was all.... Janet sank
down in the rocking-chair, her hands clasped together, overwhelmed by the
sudden apprehension of the tragedy that had lurked, all unsuspected, in
the darkness: a tragedy, not of Lise alone, but in which she herself was
somehow involved. Just why this was so, she could not for the moment
declare. The room was cold, she was clad only in a nightdress, but surges
of heat ran through her body. What should she do? She must think. But
thought was impossible. She got up and closed the window and began to
dress with feverish rapidity, pausing now and again to stand motionless.
In one such moment there entered her mind an incident that oddly had made
little impression at the time of its occurrence because she, Janet, had
been blinded by the prospect of her own happiness--that happiness which,
a few minutes ago, had seemed so real and vital a thing! And it was the
memory of this incident that suddenly threw a glaring, evil light on all
of Lise's conduct during the past months--her accidental dropping of the
vanity case and the gold coin! Now she knew for a certainty what had
happened to her sister.

Having dressed herself, she entered the kitchen, which was warm, filled
with the smell of frying meat. Streaks of grease smoke floated
fantastically beneath the low ceiling, and Hannah, with the frying-pan in
one hand and a fork