Virginia shook her head.  Sadly she said: 

“Then I’m afraid the breach will never be healed.  If he is proud, I am not less so.  I shall never send for him.”

“But you can’t go on like this, my dear Mrs. Stafford,” he protested.  “You really can’t.  You’ll make yourself ill.  It’s not the kind of life you’re fitted for.”

“What else can I do?” she inquired.  “Teach?  I have not the patience.  Go into a store?  It is too humiliating.  No, this is the best I can think of.  I’m living with my sister.  I am comfortable and as happy as I can expect to be under the circumstances.”

“But won’t you change your mind, won’t you forgive Bob?” he persisted.  “Let me go back to him now with a message from you.  It is all he is waiting for, I know it—­just one word.  It will make him the happiest of men!”

Virginia shook her head.

“You are very kind, Mr. Hadley.  I know you mean well, and that you are my friend.  My husband and I understand one another perfectly.  Neither will consent to send for the other, so the situation will remain exactly where it is.”

He rose to go.

“Is this final?”

She shook her head decisively.

“Yes—­it is final.”

“You will never go back to him?”

“Not till he comes for me.”

He grasped her hand and the next minute was lost to view in the crowd.

All that night, while the Gillies slumbered peacefully, Virginia tossed restlessly on her bed, thinking over what Mr. Hadley had told her.  Try as she would, she was unable to banish thoughts of her husband from her mind.  If he still cared for her, if he missed her, why didn’t he come for her?  If he himself suffered, why did he let her go on weeping out her heart in this way?  Why should two human beings allow their pride to make them suffer so abominably?  She thought she would show herself the more generous of the two; and send him a message, urging him to come at once.  Then, as she recalled his stern, merciless words, she again rebelled.  No—­no—­it would degrade her in his eyes if she weakened!  She would not—­she would not!  She loved him—­yes—­only now she realized how dearly she loved him; but it was just because she loved him that she would not forfeit his esteem.  When morning broke, she was still wide awake, thinking, thinking, her eyes red and swollen from countless tears.

CHAPTER XX

The Gillies’ new home was nothing to boast of.  In fact they were ashamed of its shabbiness and lived in constant dread of some of their former acquaintances discovering their whereabouts and coming to see them.  Yet it was the best they could expect to find for the little rent they were able to pay.  Situated in one of the cheapest parts of Harlem, the flat was in a row of tenement-like buildings, facing a street always filled with noisy, unkempt children.  The corridors and staircases were gaudily decorated and