perfectly sure of
quiet hours ahead, and at my sigh of satisfaction I laughed.

Going into my bedroom, which adjoined my sitting-room, I hung in the
closet the coat I had left on a chair, put away my hat and gloves,
and again looked around, as if they were still strange--the white bed
and bureau, the wash-rugs, the muslin curtains, the many contrasts to
former furnishings--and again I sighed contentedly. They were mine.

The house I am now living in is indeed an old-fashioned one, but well
built and of admirable design. The rooms are few--only eight in
all--and four of them I have taken for myself--the upper four. The
lower floor is occupied by Mrs. Mundy and Bettina, her little
granddaughter. When I first saw the house its condition was
discouraging. Not for some time had it been occupied, and repairs of
all kinds were needed. To get it in order gave me strange joy, and
the weeks in which it was being painted and papered and beautified
with modern necessities were of an interest only a person, a woman
person, can feel who has never had a home of her own before. When
everything was finished, the furnishings in place, and I established,
I knew, what I no longer made effort to deny to myself--that I was
doing a daring thing. I was taking chances in a venture I was still
afraid to face.

CHAPTER II

Kitty came to see me yesterday. Her mortification at my living in
Scarborough Square is poignant. Not since she learned of my doing so
has her amazement, her incredulity, her indignation and resentment,
lessened in the least, but her curiosity is great and her affection
sincere, and yesterday she yielded to both.

She was on her wedding journey when I left the house in which for
many years we had lived together, and, knowing it would spoil her
trip did I tell of what I had done, I did not tell. Two days ago she
got back, and over the telephone I gave her my new address.

"But I can't understand--" During most of her visit Kitty was
crying. She cries easily and well. "I can't take it in, can't even
glimpse why you want to live in such a horrid old place. It's awful!"

"Oh no, it isn't. It's a very nice place. Look how the sun comes
through those little panes of glass in those deep windows and chirps
all over the floor. I never knew before how much company sunshine
could be; how many different things it could do, until I came to
Scarborough Square. This is a very interesting place, Kitty."

"It'