"Yes," he said, when she was out of hearing. "It's hard, but I dare say
it's right enough, too. Your aunt ought to have her chance. Only--I wish
it didn't have to be."
Sidney, left alone, stood in the little parlor beside the roses. She
touched them tenderly, absently. Life, which the day before had called her
with the beckoning finger of dreams, now reached out grim insistent hands.
Life--in the raw.