because you really believed it necessary for my
happiness--"

"I still believe it!" she insisted; and her lips became a thin, hard
line.

"Then we won't discuss it. But I want to ask you one thing; have you
talked with mother about it?"

"Yes--naturally."

"Has she told you all that I told her this afternoon?"

"I suppose so. It does not alter my opinion one particle," she replied,
her pretty head obstinately lowered.

He said: "Valerie West will not marry me if my family continues hostile
to her."

Lily slowly lifted her eyes:

"Then will you tell me why she permits herself to be seen so constantly
with you? If she is not going to marry you what _is_ she going to do?
Does she care what people are saying about her?--and about you?"

"No decent people are likely to say anything unpleasant about either of
us," he said, keeping a tight rein on himself--but the curb was biting
deeply now. "Mother will stand by me, Lily. Will you?"

His sister's face reddened: "Louis," she said, "I am married; I have
children, friends, a certain position to maintain. You are unmarried,
careless of conventions, uninterested in the kind of life that I and my
friends have led, and will always lead. The life, the society, the
formalities, the conventional observances are all part of our lives, and
make for our happiness and self-respect; but they mean absolutely
nothing to you. And you propose to invade our respectable and
inoffensive seclusion with a conspicuous wife who has been a notorious
professional model; and you demand of your family that they receive her
as one of them! Louis, I ask you, is this fair to us?"

He said very gravely: "You have met Valerie West. Do you really believe
that either the dignity or the morals of the family circle would suffer
by her introduction to it?"

"I know nothing about her morals!" said his sister, excitedly.

"Then why condemn them?"

"I did not; I merely reminded you that she is a celebrated professional
model."

"It is not necessary to remind me. My mother knows it and will stand by
her. Will you do less for your own brother?"

"Louis! You are cruel, selfish, utterly heartless--"

"I am trying to think of everybody in the family who is concerned; but,
when a man's in love he can't help thinking a little of the woman he
loves--especially if nobody else does." He turned his head and looked
out of the window. Stars were shining faintly in a luminous sky. His
face seemed to have gro