nt, the one
real satisfaction I have had is in being able to do things for you--to
have you with me, and make you share in the best that the world can
offer. And if with it all you remain unhappy, why then you see I don't
know what to do."

"Oh, I know--I behave very badly!" Lady Cressage had risen, and with
visible agitation began now to pace the room. "I deserve to be thrown
into the lake--I know it well enough! But Celia--truly--I'm as incapable
of understanding it as you are. It must be that I am possessed by
devils--like the people in the New Testament. Perhaps someone will come
along who can cast them out. I don't seem able to do it myself. I can't
rule myself at all. It needs a strength I haven't got!"

"Ah!" said Celia, thoughtfully. The excited sentences which Edith threw
over her shoulder as she walked appeared, upon examination, to contain a
suggestion.

"My dear child," she asked abruptly, after a moment's silence, "do you
want to marry?"

Lady Cressage paused at the mantel, and exchanged a long steadfast
glance with her friend. Then she came slowly forward. "Ah, that is what
I don't know," she answered. Apparently the reply was candid.

Miss Madden pursed her lips, and frowned a little in thought. Then, at
some passing reflection, she smiled in a puzzled fashion. At last she
also rose, and went to the mantel for another cigarette. "Now I am
going to talk plainly," she said, with decision. "Since the subject is
mentioned, less harm will be done by speaking out than by keeping still.
There is a debate in your mind on the matter, isn't there?"

The other lady, tall, slender, gently ruminative once more, stood at the
window and with bowed head looked down at the lake. "Yes--I suppose it
might be called that," she replied, in a low voice.

"And you hesitate to tell me about it? You would rather not?" Celia,
after an instant's pause, went on without waiting for an answer. "I beg
that you won't assume my hostility to the idea, Edith. In fact, I'm not
sure I don't think it would be the best thing for you to do. Marriage,
a home, children--these are great things to a woman. We can say that she
pays the price of bondage for them--but to know what that signifies, we
must ask what her freedom has been worth to her."

"Yes," interposed the other, from the window. "What have I done with my
freedom that has been worth while?"

"Not much," murmured Celia, under her breath. She moved forward, and
stood beside Edi