ision. And as she had overcome then, for the sake
of a vow from which she was really freed, so she would conquer again for
the sake of the promise she had given to Guido d'Este, and was going to
revoke to-morrow.

A far cry echoed through the silent street, and there was a faint grey
light between the slats of the blinds. The darkness was ended at last,
and perhaps she might allow herself to sleep now. She tried, but she
could not, and she watched the dawn growing to cold daylight in the
room, till the single lamp hardly glimmered in the corner. She closed
her lids and rested as well as she could till it was time to get up.

She was very pale, and there were deep violet shadows under her eyes and
below the sharp arches of her brows, but Petersen was very near-sighted,
and noticed nothing unusual. Cecilia told her to telephone to Guido,
asking him to come at ten o'clock. When the maid returned, Cecilia bade
her arrange her hair very low at the back and to make it as smooth as
possible. There was not the slightest conscious desire for effect in the
order; when a woman has made up her mind to humiliate herself she always
makes her hair look as unobtrusive as possible, just as a
conscience-stricken dog drops his tail between his legs and hangs down
his ears to avert wrath. We men are often very unjust to women about
such things, which depend on instincts as old as humanity. Eastern
mourners do not strew ashes on their heads because it is becoming to
their appearance, and a woman's equivalents for ashes and sackcloth are
to do her hair low and wear grey, if she chances to dislike that colour.

"Are you going to confession, my dear?" asked the Countess in some
surprise when they met.

"No," Cecilia answered. "I could not sleep last night. I have telephoned
to Guido to come at ten." The Countess looked at her and instantly
understood that there was trouble.

"You are as white as a sheet," she said, with caution. "You had better
let him come after luncheon to-day."

"No. I must see him at once."

"Something has happened," the Countess said nervously. "I know something
has happened."

"I will tell you by-and-by. Please do not ask me now."

Her mother's look of anxiety turned slowly to an expression of real
fear, her eyes opened wide, she grew pale, and her jaw fell as her lips
parted. She looked suddenly old and grey.

"You are not going to marry him after all," she said, after a breathless
little silence.

Some se