ou can come with me if you like."

Adela burst out:

"He hasn't had any tea!"

"I'm not urging him to come, my dear. Good-bye."

Adela and George exchanged a glance, each signalling to the other that
perhaps this sick, strange girl ought to be humoured. He abandoned the
tea.... He was in the street with Lois. He was in the train with her.
Her ticket was in his pocket. He had explained to her why he was late,
and she had smiled, amiably but enigmatically. He thought: "She's no
right to go on like this. But what does it matter?" She said nothing
about the competition--not a word of congratulation. Indeed she hardly
spoke beyond telling him that she had to choose some object at the flat.
He was aware of the principal terms of Irene's will, which indeed had
caused the last flutter of excitement before oblivion so quickly
descended upon the notoriety of the social star. Irene's renown had
survived her complexion by only a few short weeks. The will was of a
rather romantic nature. Nobody familiar with the intimate circumstances
would have been surprised if Irene had divided her fortune between Lois
and Laurencine. The bulk of it, however, went back to Indianapolis. The
gross total fell far short of popular estimates. Lois and Laurencine
received five thousand pounds apiece, and in addition they were
requested to select each an object from Irene's belongings--Lois out of
the London flat, Laurencine out of the Paris flat. Lois had come to
London to choose, and she was staying with Adela, the sole chaperon
available. Since the death of Irene, Mrs. Ingram had been excessively
strict in the matter of chaperons.

They took a hansom at Victoria. Across the great square, whose leaves
were just yellowing, George saw the huge block of flats, and in one
story all the blinds were down. Lois marched first into the lift,
masterfully, as though she inhabited the block. She asked no one's
permission. Characteristically she had an order from the solicitors, and
the keys of the flat. She opened the door without any trouble. They were
inside, within the pale-sheeted interior. Scarcely a thing had yet been
moved, for, with the formalities of the judicatures of France, England,
and the State of Indiana to be complied with, events marched slowly
under the sticky manipulation of three different legal firms. Lois and
George walked cautiously across the dusty, dulled parquets into the vast
drawing-room. George doffed his hat.

"I'd better draw