"In what hideous sense?"

"To tell her I was glad."

"And did you?" Adela panted.

"I don't know. I said something. She kissed me."

"Oh how COULD you?" shuddered the girl, who covered her face with her
hands.

"He says she's very rich," her brother returned.

"Is that why you kissed her?"

"I didn't kiss her. Good-night." And the young man, turning his
back, went out.

When he had gone Adela locked herself in as with the fear she should
be overtaken or invaded, and during a sleepless feverish memorable
night she took counsel of her uncompromising spirit. She saw things
as they were, in all the indignity of life. The levity, the mockery,
the infidelity, the ugliness, lay as plain as a map before her; it
was a world of gross practical jokes, a world pour rire; but she
cried about it all the same. The morning dawned early, or rather it
seemed to her there had been no night, nothing but a sickly creeping
day. But by the time she heard the house stirring again she had
determined what to do. When she came down to the breakfast-room her
father was already in his place with newspapers and letters; and she
expected the first words he would utter to be a rebuke to her for