Until then Billy contrived to keep, before them, a countenance serene, and a manner free from unrest.

Even when, after dinner that evening, Bertram put on his hat and coat and went out, Billy refused to meet her sister-in-law's meaning gaze.

But in the morning, after they had left the house, Billy did not attempt to deceive herself.

Determinedly, then, she set herself to going over in her mind the past months since the baby came; and she was appalled at what she found.

Ever in her ears, too, was that feared name, "Bob Seaver"; and ever before her eyes was that night years ago when, as an eighteen-year-old girl, she had followed Bertram and Bob Seaver into a glittering cafe at eleven o'clock at night, because Bertram had been drinking and was not himself.