"It was on that theory you advised me, I think," said Sylvia, looking into the fire.
"Advised you, child?"
"Yes--about accepting Howard."
"Certainly. Is it not a sound theory? Doesn't it stand inspection? Doesn't it wear?"
"It--wears," said Sylvia indifferently. Grace looked up from her open book. "Is anything amiss?" she asked.
"I don't know."
"Of course you know, child. What is wrong? Has Howard made himself insufferable? He's a master at it. Has he?"
"No; I don't remember that he has. … I'm tired, physically. I'm tired of the winter."
"Go to Florida for Lent."
"Horror! It's as stupid as a hothouse. It isn't that, either, dear--only, when it was raining so deliciously the other day I was silly enough to think I scented the spring in the park. I was glad of a change you know--any excuse to stop this eternal carnival I live in."
"What is the matter?" demanded Mrs. Ferrall, withdrawing her finger from the pages and plumping the closed book down on her knee. "You'd better tell me, Sylvia; you might just as well tell me now as later when my persistence has vexed us both. Now, what has happened?"
"I have been--imprudent," said Sylvia, in a low voice.
"You mean,"--Mrs. Ferrall looked at her keenly--"that he has been here?"
"No. I telephoned him; and I asked him to drive with me."
"Oh, Sylvia, what nonsense! Why on earth do you stir yourself up by that sort of silliness at this late date? What use is it? Can't you let him alone?"
"I--No, I can't, it seems. Grace, I was--I felt so--so strangely about it all."
"About what, little idiot?"
"About leaving him--alone."
"Are you Stephen Siward's keeper?" demanded Mrs. Ferrall, exasperated.
"I felt as though I were, for awhile. He is ill."
"With an illness that, thank God, you are not going to nurse through life. Don't look at me that way, dear. I'm obliged to speak harshly; I'm obliged to harden my heart to such a monstrous idea. You know I love you; you know I care deeply for that poor boy--but do you think I could be loyal to either of you and not say what I do say? He is doomed, as sure as you sit there! He has fallen, and no one can help him. Link after link he has broken with his own world; his master-vice holds him faster, closer, more absolutely, than hell ever held a lost soul!"
"Grace, I cannot endure--"
"You must! Are you trying to drug your silly self with romance so you won't recognise truth when you see it? Are you drifting back into old impulses, unreasoning whims of caprice? Have you forgotten what I know of you, and what you know of yourself? Is the taint of your transmitted inheritance beginning to show in you--the one woman of your race who is fashioned to withstand it and stamp it out?"