scrutinized may have shown itself in her
manner to Owen, and set him imagining the insane things he did...I
understand all she must have felt, and I agree with her that it's best
she should go away for a while. She's made me," Anna summed up, "feel as
if I'd been dreadfully thick-skinned and obtuse!"

"YOU?"

"Yes. As if I'd treated her like the bric-a-brac that used to be sent
down here 'on approval,' to see if it would look well with the other
pieces." She added, with a sudden flush of enthusiasm: "I'm glad she's
got it in her to make one feel like that!"

She seemed to wait for Darrow to agree with her, or to put some other
question, and he finally found voice to ask: "Then you think it's not a
final break?"

"I hope not--I've never hoped it more! I had a word with Owen, too,
after I left her, and I think he understands that he must let her go
without insisting on any positive promise. She's excited...he must let
her calm down..."

Again she waited, and Darrow said: "Surely you can make him see that."

"She'll help me to--she's to see him, of course, before she goes. She
starts immediately, by the way, with Adelaide Painter, who is motoring
over to Francheuil to catch the one o'clock express--and who, of course,
knows nothing of all this, and is simply to be told that Sophy has been
sent for by the Farlows."

Darrow mutely signed his comprehension, and she went on: "Owen is
particularly anxious that neither Adelaide nor his grandmother should
have the least inkling of what's happened. The need of shielding Sophy
will help him to control himself. He's coming to his senses, poor boy;
he's ashamed of his wild talk already. He asked me to tell you so; no
doubt he'll tell you so himself."

Darrow made a movement of protest. "Oh, as to that--the thing's not
worth another word."

"Or another thought, either?" She brightened. "Promise me you won't even
think of it--promise me you won't be hard on him!"

He was finding it easier to smile back at her. "Why should you think it
necessary to ask my indulgence for Owen?"

She hesitated a moment, her eyes wandering from him. Then they came back
with a smile. "Perhaps because I need it for myself."

"For yourself?"

"I mean, because I understand better how one can torture one's self over
unrealities."

As Darrow listened, the tension of his nerves began to relax. Her gaze,
so grave and yet so sweet, was like a deep pool into which he could
plunge and hide himself