he had irrevocably given
herself and taken--all. A longing to see Ditmar again invaded her: he
would take an early train, he would be at the office by nine. How could
she wait until then?

With a movement that had become habitual, subconscious, she reached out
her hand to arouse her sister. The coldness of the sheets on the right
side of the bed sent a shiver through her--a shiver of fear.

"Lise!" she called. But there was no answer from the darkness. And
Janet, trembling, her heart beating wildly, sprang from the bed,
searched for the matches, and lit the gas. There was no sign of Lise;
her clothes, which she had the habit of flinging across the chairs, were
nowhere to be seen. Janet's eyes fell on the bureau, marked the absence
of several knick-knacks, including a comb and brush, and with a sudden
sickness of apprehension she darted to the wardrobe and flung open the
doors. In the bottom were a few odd garments, above was the hat with
the purple feather, now shabby and discarded, on the hooks a skirt
and jacket Lise wore to work at the Bagatelle in bad weather. That
was all.... Janet sank down in the rocking-chair, her hands clasped
together, overwhelmed by the sudden apprehension of the tragedy that had
lurked, all unsuspected, in the darkness: a tragedy, not of Lise alone,
but in which she herself was somehow involved. Just why this was so, she
could not for the moment declare. The room was cold, she was clad only
in a nightdress, but surges of heat ran through her body. What should
she do? She must think. But thought was impossible. She got up and
closed the window and began to dress with feverish rapidity, pausing now
and again to stand motionless. In one such moment there entered her mind
an incident that oddly had made little impression at the time of its
occurrence because she, Janet, had been blinded by the prospect of her
own happiness--that happiness which, a few minutes ago, had seemed so
real and vital a thing! And it was the memory of this incident that
suddenly threw a glaring, evil light on all of Lise's conduct during
the past months--her accidental dropping of the vanity case and the gold
coin! Now she knew for a certainty what had happened to her sister.

Having dressed herself, she entered the kitchen, which was warm,
filled with the smell of frying meat. Streaks of grease smoke floated
fantastically beneath the low ceiling, and Hannah, with the frying-pan
in one hand and a fork in the other, was