gins to--to live I'll go."

It was Barbara who arranged the matter peaceably, mollifying Miss
Gallifer. Without explaining who Letty was she insisted on her right
to remain. If Miss Gallifer was mystified, it was no more than Miss
Towell was, or anyone else who touched the situation at a tangent. To
that Barbara was indifferent, while Letty didn't think of it.

In rallying her forces Barbara's first recollection had been, "I must
be a sport." With theoretical sporting instincts she knew herself the
kind of sport who doesn't always run true to form. Hating meanness she
could lapse into the mean, and toward Letty herself had so lapsed.
That accident she must guard against. The issues were so big that
whatever happened, she couldn't afford to reproach herself.
Self-reproach would not only magnify defeat but poison success, since,
if she availed herself of her advantages, no success would ever prove
worth while.

For her own sake rather than for Letty's she made use of the hour
while the doctors were again in consultation to explain the
possibilities. She would have the whole thing clearly understood.
Whether or not Letty did understand it she wasn't quite sure, since
she seemed cut off from thought-communication. She listened, nodded,
was docile to instructions, but made no response.

To be as lucid as possible Barbara put it in this way: "Since you've
left him, and I've broken my engagement he'll be absolutely free to
choose; and yet, you must remember, we may--we may both lose him."

That both should lose him seemed indeed the more probable after the
consultation. All the doctors looked grave, even Dr. Lancing. His
dinner-party manner had forsaken him as he talked to Barbara, his
emphasis being thrown on the word "prepared." It was still one of
those cases in which you couldn't tell, though so far the symptoms
were not encouraging. He felt himself bound in honor to say as much as
that, hoping, however, for the best.

Closing the front door on him Barbara felt herself shaken by a
frightful possibility. If he never regained consciousness that would
"settle it." The suspense would be over. Her fate would be determined.
She would no longer have to wonder and doubt, to strive or to cry. No
longer would she run the risk of seeing another woman get him. She
would find that which her tempestuous nature craved before
everything--rest, peace, release from the impulse to battle and
dominate. Not by words, not so much as by t