the moment, however, that point must be allowed to pass. "Not yet!
Not yet!" something cried to the passion that was trying to get control
of her. She went on earnestly, almost beseechingly: "I know just what
happened, Rosie dear, and how hard it's been for you; and I want you to
let me help you."

There was no light in Rosie's chrysoprase-colored eyes. Her voice was
listless. "What can you do?"

Put to her in that point-blank way, Lois found the question difficult.
She could only answer: "I can be with you, Rosie. We can be side by
side."

"There wouldn't be any good in that. I'd rather be left alone."

"Oh, but there would be good. We should strengthen each other. I--I need
help, too. I should find it partly, if I could do anything for you."

Rosie surveyed her friend, not coldly, but with dull detachment. "Do you
think Claude will come back to me?"

"What do you think, yourself?"

"I don't think he will." She added, with a catch in her breath like that
produced by a sudden, darting pain, "I know he won't."

"Would you be happy with him if he did?"

"I shouldn't care whether I was happy or not--if he'd come."

Lois thought it the part of wisdom to hold out no hope. "Then, since we
believe he won't come, isn't it better to face it with--"

"I don't see any use in facing it. You might as well ask a plant to face
it when it's pulled up by the roots and thrown out into the sun. There's
nothing left to face."

"But you're not pulled up by the roots, Rosie. Your roots are still in
the soil. You've people who need you--"

Rosie made a little gesture, with palms outward. "I've given them all I
had. I'm--I'm--empty."

"Yes, you feel so now. That's natural. We do feel empty of anything more
to give when there's been a great drain on us. But somehow it's the
people who've given most who always have the power to go on
giving--after a little while. With time--"

The girl interrupted, not impatiently, but with vacant indifference.
"What's the good of time--when it's going to be always the same?"

"The good of time is that it brings comfort--"

"I don't want comfort. I'd rather be as I am."

"That's perfectly natural--for now. But time passes whether we will or
no; and whether we will or no, it softens--"

"Time can't pass if you won't let it."

"Why--why, what do you mean?"

"I mean--just that."

Lois clasped the girl's hands desperately. "But, Rosie, you must _live_.
Life has a great deal in store for