write. If you write to me, I shall return the letter unopened."

"But why? It is surely absurd for us to put on airs of dignity with one
another. Francie, you don't mean us to part like this?"

She stepped quickly across the hearthrug and, with a passionate
gesture, pressed the button of the bell--evidently to summon Willis to
show him out. So he took up his hat, offended in his turn, and for the
first time feeling fairly easy in his mind as to the way he was
treating her. But the tragedy of the moment was turned to vulgar comedy
by her alarm at the fact that she had struck the bell before relighting
the pink lamps.

"Oh, where are the matches?" she whispered excitedly. "I can't find
them."

"Here--here!" he cried, fumbling for his own pocket box.

And their flurried hands got mixed as she turned the taps while he
applied the light to the burners.

The instant after they had restored the room to its normal condition,
the butler appeared. Mrs Ewing turned to him with the amazing
self-possession of a woman accustomed to extricate herself at a
moment's notice from an awkward fix.

"Willis," she said sweetly--and even smiled as she spoke--"will you
please have a cab fetched for Captain Carey? He is rather late
for a dinner engagement." The butler acknowledged the order and
withdrew. In the light of the pink lamps the late combatants looked