ed
her to the door. "Take some----"

"I have everything upstairs, thank you, mother. Good-night."

"Good-night, my darling child." Those kisses were the fondest her
mother had ever given her. "How I wish that your poor dear father
could know of our perfect happiness!"

Nancy passed out into the hall, closed the door behind her, and leaned
for a moment against the wall. Mrs. Warren's idea of perfect happiness
would have received a severe shock, could she have heard Nancy murmur,
brokenly: "Dear old dad! Pray Heaven you _don't_ know that your little
Nance is a miserable, mercenary coward!"

* * * * *

There is a certain sense of relief that follows the consummation of a
long-delayed decision, no matter how inherently distasteful that
decision may be, and Nancy's first feeling when she awoke on the
following morning was one of thankfulness that the preliminary step
had been taken.

All burdens seem lighter, everything takes a different hue, in the
morning when the sun is shining and the birds are singing, and after
the months of sickening indecision Nancy experienced such a delightful
sense of rest, such a freedom from suspense, that she actually laughed
aloud as she said to herself: "Oh, I guess perhaps it's not going to
be so bad, after all!"

By the time that Mr. James Thornton's daily offering of violets and
orchids had arrived, she had about decided that she was a rather
levelheaded young woman, and when, an hour after that, she found
herself seated beside the devoted James, in his glaringly resplendent
automobile, skimming along at an exhilarating pace over a fine stretch
of country road, she had come to the conclusion that that arch-type of
female foolishness, the Virgin with the Unfilled Lamp, was wisdom
incarnate compared to the woman who deliberately throws aside the
goods the gods provide her. Oh, yes, Nancy was fast becoming the more
worthy daughter of a worthy mother!

James Thornton, reassured by what Mrs. Warren had delicately hinted to
him the evening before, exulted in Nancy's buoyant spirits. He had
never seen her so attractive. She chattered away merrily, laughed at
his weighty jokes and his more or less pointless stories, and even
forgot to be angry when for one brief, fleeting instant his massive
hand closed over her slim, aristocratic one. It seemed too good to be
true that this fascinating bit of femininity was soon to be his.

When they finally returned to