men not to be considered, while Nancy
was--the other kind!

Joan regarded, as she never had before, the freedom and safety of such
girls as Nancy. She could realize the pressure, the favouring
environment that surrounded so desirable a thing as this coming together
of Raymond and Nancy!

She knew how the same force could blot such as she was supposed to be
from the inner circle! How little they counted!

Oh! the bitterness of the knowledge that it was such girls as
Patricia--as Raymond believed her--who were not free; who must snatch
what they can from life and not resent what goes with it. They must--not
care! Outside the code there was no real freedom--because there was no
choice! It was a place of chains and bars compared to the other.

The waves of humiliation and shame swept over Joan, but each time she
emerged she held her head higher.

"And he left me--to go my way and he went--to Nancy! He did not care!"
It was anger now; proud, life-saving anger. "If he had only cared!"

"And why--should he?" The thought was like a dash of cold water in her
face.

After all, why should he? It _was_ only play until that awful night!
That was the revealing hour of real danger.

Clutching her hands, Joan went over every step of the way upon which
Raymond had gone with her.

It had all been a mad escapade in that time of mistaken freedom. He and
she had both been brought to the realization of the folly by a blow that
had awakened them, not stunned them. They had been forced to acknowledge
the danger hidden in themselves. It was in such whirlpools many were
lost, but they----

And at this point Joan recalled, as if he were before her now, the look
in Raymond's face when he gained control of himself!

Always, since that night, Joan had felt, when thinking of Raymond, that
she never wanted to see him again. She knew that he had never held any
real part in her life and he would always hold her back, as she might
him--from proving the best that was in each other if they came into
contact.

With this conclusion reached Joan had gained a secure footing. As a man,
detached from herself and her past, she knew that Raymond was worthy of
love and happiness, just as, in her heart, she knew that she herself
was. But could others understand? Others, like Nancy?

While she had been buffeted on a rough sea, since that stormy night in
the studio, Raymond had drifted into his safe harbour, sooner. There was
nothing to hold him back-