re
had been no mention. Had he returned to the Sabrina? Or could Bertha--the
dread alternative sprang on her suddenly--could Bertha, left to herself,
have gone ashore to rejoin him? Lily's heart stood still at the thought.
All her concern had hitherto been for young Silverton, not only because,
in such affairs, the woman's instinct is to side with the man, but
because his case made a peculiar appeal to her sympathies. He was so
desperately in earnest, poor youth, and his earnestness was of so
different a quality from Bertha's, though hers too was desperate enough.
The difference was that Bertha was in earnest only about herself, while
he was in earnest about her. But now, at the actual crisis, this
difference seemed to throw the weight of destitution on Bertha's side,
since at least he had her to suffer for, and she had only herself. At any
rate, viewed less ideally, all the disadvantages of such a situation were
for the woman; and it was to Bertha that Lily's sympathies now went out.
She was not fond of Bertha Dorset, but neither was she without a sense of
obligation, the heavier for having so little personal liking to sustain
it. Bertha had been kind to her, they had lived together, during the last
months, on terms of easy friendship, and the sense of friction of which
Lily had recently become aware seemed to make it the more urgent that she
should work undividedly in her friend's interest.

It was in Bertha's interest, certainly, that she had despatched Dorset to
consult with Lawrence Selden. Once the grotesqueness of the situation
accepted, she had seen at a glance that it was the safest in which Dorset
could find himself. Who but Selden could thus miraculously combine the
skill to save Bertha with the obligation of doing so? The consciousness
that much skill would be required made Lily rest thankfully in the
greatness of the obligation. Since he would HAVE to pull Bertha through
she could trust him to find a way; and she put the fulness of her trust
in the telegram she managed to send him on her way to the quay.

Thus far, then, Lily felt that she had done well; and the conviction
strengthened her for the task that remained. She and Bertha had never
been on confidential terms, but at such a crisis the barriers of reserve
must surely fall: Dorset's wild allusions to the scene of the morning
made Lily feel that they were down already, and that any attempt to
rebuild them would be beyond Bertha's strength. She pictur