It is going to be painful perhaps--and it is going to take a long while to explain--" "It need not take long," said Valerie, without raising her eyes from her stitches; "it requires only a word to tell me that you and your father and mother do not wish your brother to marry me." She looked up quietly, and her eyes met Lily's: "I promise not to marry him," she said.

"You are perfectly right.

He belongs to his own family; he belongs in his own world." She looked down again at her sewing with a faint smile: "I shall not attempt to enter that world as his wife, Mrs.Collis, or to draw him out of it....

And I hope that you will not be anxious any more." She laid aside her work and rose to her slender height, smilingly, as though the elder woman had terminated the interview; and Lily, utterly confounded, rose, too, as Valerie offered her hand in adieu.
"Miss West," she began, not perfectly sure of what she was saying, "I--scarcely dare thank you--for what you have said--for--my--brother's--sake--" Valerie laughed: "I would do much more than that for him, Mrs.
Collis....

Only I must first be sure of what is really the best way to serve him." Lily's gloved hand tightened over hers; and she laid the other one over it: "You are so generous, so sweet about it!" she said unsteadily.