As time passed and she grew to know Hal yet better, she felt
instinctively it was the first of these, coupled with that true
sportsman-spirit which was one of her strongest attributes.

Lorraine was not the only one who felt that whether Hal had any
religion or not, or any faith, through good and ill, by easy paths and
difficult, one might be absolutely sure that she would "play the game."
It made her feel herself richer with her one friend than with her
mother's admitted hosts, and though she seemed to hesitate and reason
on that Sunday morning, both knew the cheque would finally be written,
and the coveted garment rescued in time for the important lunch.

Only, afterwards, a shadow seemed to linger to-day that heretofore
would have vanished with the departing figure. The sunshine crept
through the drawn curtains, lying like a shaft of hope across the
gloom, but it brought no answering gleam into the beautiful eyes, with
their tired, far-off gaze.

It was all very well for Hal to be a main feature in her life, blessing
it with her friendship, while she turned kindly, unseeing eyes away
from the corners where the murky shadows lay: Hal, who knew about the
mad, discreditable marriage and its violent termination, and probably
also of her mother's insatiable thirst for admiration and excitement at
any cost.

There was something about Hal in herself that was as a shining armour,
against which unkind barbs fell harmlessly, and enabled her to go on
her serene and joyful way in blissful non-attention.