"I've come up for Mother's drops. She forgot them." She went on into Mrs. Boynton's bedroom. From a bottle on the washstand she carefully measured a dose into a small medicine glass, filling it up with water. As she passed through the sitting room again she paused. "Lennox."

It was a moment or two before he answered her. It was as though the message had a long way to travel. Then he said: "I beg your pardon. What is it?"

Nadine Boynton set down the glass carefully on the table. Then she went over and stood beside him. "Lennox, look at the sunshine out there, through the window. Look at life. It's beautiful. We might be out instead of being here looking through a window."

Again there was a pause. Then he said: "I'm sorry. Do you want to go out?"

She answered him quickly: "Yes I want to go out—with you—out into the sun! Go out into life—and live—the two of us together."

He shrank back into his chair. His eyes looked restless, hunted. "Nadine, my dear, must we go into all this again—"

"Yes, we must. Let us go away and lead our own life somewhere."

"How can we? We've no money."

"We can earn money."

"How could we? What could we do? I'm untrained. Thousands of men—qualified men—trained men—are out of jobs as it is. We couldn't manage it."

"I would earn money for both of us."

"My dear child, you've never even completed your training. It's hopeless—impossible."

"No; what is hopeless and impossible is our present life."

"You don't know what you are talking about. Mother is very good to us. She gives us every luxury."

"Except freedom. Lennox, make an effort. Come with me now, today—"

"Nadine, I think you're quite mad."

"No, I'm sane. Absolutely and completely sane. I want a life of my own, with you, in the sunshine, not stifled in the shadow of an old woman who is a tyrant and who delights in making you unhappy."

"Mother may be rather an autocrat—"

"Your mother is mad! She's insane!"

He answered mildly: "That's not true. She's got a remarkably good head for business."

"Perhaps—yes."

"And you must realize, Nadine, she can't live forever. She's sixty-odd and she's in very bad health. At her death my father's money is to be divided equally among us, share and share alike. You remember, she read us the will?"

"When she dies," said Nadine. "It may be too late."

"Too late?"

"Too late for happiness."

Lennox murmured: "Too late for happiness." He shivered suddenly. Nadine went closer to him. She put her hand on his shoulder.

"Lennox, I love you. It's a battle between me and your mother. Are you going to be on her side or mine?"

"On yours, on yours!"

"Then do what I ask."

"It's impossible!"

"No, it's not impossible. Think, Lennox, we could have children . . ."

"Mother wants us to have children, anyway. She has said so."

"I know, but I won't bring children into the world to live in the shadow you have all been brought up in. Your mother can influence you, but she's no power over me."