, or
couldn't do, now?"

"Ah, now"--said the other, looking up with a thin smile--"now is an
interval--an oasis."

Miss Madden's large, handsome, clear-hued face, habitually serene in its
expression, lost something in composure as she regarded her companion.
"I don't know why you should say that," she observed, gently enough, but
with an effect of reproof in her tone. "I have never put limits to the
connection, in my own mind--and it hadn't occurred to me that you were
doing so in yours."

"But I'm not," interposed Lady Cressage.

"Then I understand you less than ever. Why do you talk about an
'interval'? What was the other word?--'oasis'--as if this were a brief
halt for refreshments and a breathing-spell, and that presently you must
wander forth into the desert again. That suggestion is none of mine. We
agreed that we would live together--'pool our issues,' as they say in
America. I wanted a companion; so did you. I have never for an instant
regretted the arrangement. Some of my own shortcomings in the matter I
have regretted. You were the most beautiful young woman I had ever seen,
and you were talented, and you seemed to like me--and I promised myself
that I would add cheerfulness and a gay spirit to your other gifts--and
in that I have failed wofully. You're not happy. I see that only too
clearly."

"I know--I'm a weariness and a bore to you," broke in the other,
despondingly.

"That is precisely what you're not," Celia went on. "We mustn't use
words of that sort. They don't describe anything in our life at all. But
I should be better pleased with myself if I could really put my finger
on what it is that is worrying you. Even if we decided to break up our
establishment, I have told you that you should not go back to what you
regard as poverty. Upon that score, I had hoped that your mind was easy.
As I say, I think you attach more importance to money than those who
have tested its powers would agree to--but that's neither here nor
there. You did not get on well on 600 pounds a year--and that is enough.
You shall never have less than twice that amount, whether we keep
together or not--and if it ought to be three times the amount, that
doesn't matter.

"You don't seem to realize, Edith"--she spoke with increased
animation--"that you are my caprice. You are the possession that I am
proudest of and fondest of. There is nothing else that appeals to me a
hundredth part as much as you do. Since I became independe