“What’s it all about?” he asked.

“It’s time you saw where you stand, Joe Lanier.  Look at this girl.  I don’t blame her, God knows.  Look how young she is, and then look at yourself.  Here, take a look at yourself in that mirror.  Are you still young?  Can’t you see the lines, the gray hairs, Joe?  They’re coming—­oh, they’re coming!  Can you supply all the love she wants?”

“Fanny?” he snapped out her name in so ugly a voice that she lost no time.  She shoved those papers into his hands and began to tell him what they were.  But Joe refused to read them and grew each moment angrier.

“Joe!” cried Fanny sharply.  “When you brought Dwight to dinner here, he met your wife as though for the first time.  Did you know they had been friends for months?” And at his startled look, she added, “If you didn’t, you’d better read all this!” There fell a sudden silence.

“I’ll explain everything—­when we’re alone,” Ethel managed to put in.  How queer and thick her own voice sounded.

Now Joe had gone into the hall with Fanny.  Curtly he said good-night to her.  The door closed, and there was silence again.  Why didn’t he come?  He must be standing there in the hall trying to get hold of himself.  Oh, how terribly hurt he must feel!  But she checked the sudden lump in her throat.  “Remember now—­just common sense!” This was a time for keeping clear!  But Joe had come back into the room, and passing the gilt mirror into which Fanny had told him to look, he stopped a moment.

“Don’t do that, Joe!” In an instant, in spite of herself, her love for him rose up in a wave, with fear and pity and anger, too.  She came to him, and her voice was shaking.  “Oh, Joe—­Joe!  Can’t you see it’s all lies?  It’s so loathsome—­every word!  And so cheap—­so cheap and mean!”

As she spoke, his eyes were rapidly scanning the report he still had in his hands.  Again she noticed how tired he was.  He looked up at her: 

“I know it is!  But why didn’t you treat it like that?  Why did you try to make her keep quiet?  Weren’t you trying, when I came in?”

“No!  No!  It was just her odious trick—­her pretending!”

“Pretending?  How about you?  Why did you pretend, when I brought Dwight here, that you’d never laid eyes on him before?  Had you or hadn’t you?  Careful, now!  Fanny says it is all here!”

“I’ll explain in one word!”

“What’s the word?  Say it, please—­and for God’s sake clear this up!”

She was breathing hard, frightened, her mind in a whirl.  Oh, to be able to think clearly!  Use a little common sense!

“Just a minute!” she gasped.  “You’ll see in a minute—­”

“I see a good deal!  It’s right in your eyes!  What are you looking so scared about!  And what did she say about my being old!  I am old—­and you’re young, young!  And a beauty—­just the kind for Dwight!  Don’t I know of his love affairs?  Wasn’t he at it way back in Paris?  Hasn’t he been—­ever since?”