before going to
work--and to-day he had forgotten. Getting up, she opened the glass
door, and stood trying to estimate the hour: it must be, she thought,
about six. She set the hands, took the key from the nail above the
shelf, wound up the weight, and started the pendulum. And the sound of
familiar ticking was a relief, releasing at last her inhibited powers of
speech.

"Mother," she said, "I'll get some supper for you."

On Hannah, these simple words had a seemingly magical effect. Habit
reasserted itself. She started, and rose almost briskly.

"No you won't," she said, "I'll get it. I'd ought to have thought of it
before. You must be tired and hungry."

Her voice was odd and thin. Janet hesitated a moment, and ceded.

"Well, I'll set the dishes on the table, anyway."

Janet had sought refuge, wistfully, in the commonplace. And when the
meal was ready she strove to eat, though food had become repulsive.

"You must take something, mother," she said.

"I don't feel as if I ever wanted to eat anything again," she replied.

"I know," said Janet, "but you've got to." And she put some of the cold
meat, left over from Sunday's dinner, on Hannah's plate. Hannah took up
a fork, and laid it down again. Suddenly she said:--"You saw Lise?"

"Yes," said Janet.

"Where is she?"

"In a house--in Boston."

"One of--those houses?"

"I--I don't know," said Janet. "I think so."

"You went there?"

"Mr. Tiernan went with me."

"She wouldn't come home?"

"Not--not just now, mother."

"You left her there, in that place? You didn't make her come home?"

The sudden vehemence of this question, the shrill note of reproach in
Hannah's voice that revealed, even more than the terrible inertia from
which she had emerged, the extent of her suffering, for the instant
left Janet utterly dismayed. "Oh mother!" she exclaimed. "I tried--I--I
couldn't."

Hannah pushed back her chair.

"I'll go to her, I'll make her come. She's disgraced us, but I'll make
her. Where is she? Where is the house?"

Janet, terrified, seized her mother's arm. Then she said:--"Lise isn't
there any more--she's gone away."

"Away and you let her go away? You let your sister go away and be a--a
woman of the town? You never loved her--you never had any pity for her."

Tears sprang into Janet's eyes--tears of pity mingled with anger. The
situation had grown intolerable! Yet how could she tell Hannah where
Lise was!

"You haven't any right to say th