Mutual concessions!--and then to turn it around so that it suggested that an act of kindness might be interpreted as moral obloquy! Walls; queer, invisible walls that receded whenever she reached out, but that still remained between her and what she sought.

The wall of the sky, the wall of the horizon, the wall behind which each human being hid--the wall behind which she herself was hiding! If only her mother had lived, her darling mother! Presently the unhappy puzzlement left her face; and an inward glow began to lighten it.

The curtain before one mystery was torn aside, and she saw in reality what lay behind the impulse that had led her into the young man's room.

Somebody to whom she would be necessary, who for days would have to depend upon her for the needs of life.
An inarticulate instinct which now found expression.

Upon what this instinct was based she could not say; she was conscious only of its insistence.