--Nothing but dead leaves and distant voices that went by! In spite
of her beauty, her brilliance, her gallant heart, this was what life had
brought to her at the end. Only loneliness and the courage of those who
have given always and never received.

"There is something else," she said again. "There is courage." Then, as
the other woman made no reply, she went on more rapidly: "I will do what
I can. It is very little. I cannot change him. I cannot make him feel
again. But you can trust me. You are safe with me."

"I know that," answered Alice in a voice that sounded muffled and husky.
"I have always known that." She rose and readjusted her veil. "That
means a great deal," she added. "Oh, I think it means that the world
has grown better!"

Corinna stooped and kissed her. "No, it only means that some of us have
learned to live without happiness."

She went with Alice to the door, and then stood watching her descend the
steps and enter the small closed car in the drive. There was a touching
grace in the slight, shrinking figure, as if it embodied in a single
image all the women in the world who had lost hope. "Yet it is the weak,
the passive, who get what they want in the end," thought Corinna, as
dispassionately as if she were merely a spectator. "I suppose it is
because they need it more. They have never learned to do without. They
do not know how to carry a broken heart." Then she smiled as she turned
back into the house. "It is very late, and the only certain rules are
that one must dine and one must dress for dinner."

A little later, when John Benham was announced and she came down to the
drawing-room, her first glance at his face told her that she must be
looking her best. She was wearing black, and beneath the white lock in
her dark hair, her face was flushed with the colour of happiness. Only
her eyes, velvet soft and as deep as a forest pool, had a haunted look.

"I have never," he said, "seen you look better."

She laughed. After all, one might permit a touch of coquetry in the
final renouncement! "Perhaps you have never really seen me before."

Though he looked puzzled, he responded gaily: "On the contrary, I have
seen little else for the last two or three months."

There was an edge of irony to her smile. "Were you looking at me or my
shadow?"

He shook his head. "Are shadows ever as brilliant as that?"

Then before she could answer the Judge came in with his cordial
outstretched hand and his air