orgotten Ewing, and studied the red light that
fell across the table through a shade of silk.

"What fools we are to think of painting shadows! If heaven's the place
it's said to be they'll have real shadows put in up tubes, and
then--well, _think_ of it!"

She laughed at him, her brief laugh, with a sigh to follow.

"We must go to the others. But, Herbert, you'll watch him as well as
you can, won't you? I feel responsible for him in a way."

He hesitated, but the light came. "Oh, you mean Ewing? Of course I'll
watch him. I dare say he'll paint some day, after a fashion." He fumbled
for the knob and awkwardly opened the door for her.

When the men went Mrs. Laithe asked if she might not linger a moment.

"Dear Aunt Kitty!" she said, going to the other's chair. "_Old_ Kitty!"
she repeated meaningly. The elder woman glanced quickly at her in faint
alarm, half questioning, half defiant.

"Oh, Aunt Kitty! I know--I _know_! and I must talk of him. I suspected
something almost from the first, and then I made sure. But I thought
that perhaps no one else would find it out. And he was worth it--he is
worth it. I couldn't have left him there, even if I'd been sure that
everyone would know. He was a man--he had the right to live."

"My child, my child! Oh, you didn't know what you were doing! It was a
monstrous thing, an impossible thing!"

"He's Kitty's son. You must feel for him."

"Feel? What haven't I felt since that day he came here?" There had been
a break in her voice, but she went quietly on. "I can't make you know,
dear. You've torn me--it will hurt to the end. Can you understand that
in a terrible, an unspeakable way, my Kitty is still alive, is near me,
and yet is not to be known? But you can't understand it. You've never
had a child."

"Ah! but I've been one. I know what he would feel."

"Please, dear!" She put up a hand in protest. "As if I don't feel his
hurt and Kitty's as well as mine. I shall be ground between the two
every day of my life. Do you think my old arms didn't cry out to be
around the mother in him? But think if I had yielded! Picture his own
suffering--his own shame. Can you see us meeting, our eyes falling? Even
for his own sake, he must never know."

"Isn't there a way, Aunt Kitty? Some way? He's worth finding a way for."
She leaned over to stroke the other's hand.

"No way, my girl. Be the world a moment, be cool. He's a nameless thing.
You might know him, but nothing more. Could he