Two Women

Evelyn, hearing footsteps across the floor of the attic room above her own
bedchamber, arose and set wide the door; then went back to her chair by
the window that looked out upon green grass and party-colored trees and
long reaches of the shining river. "Come here, if you please," she called
to Audrey, as the latter slowly descended the stair from the room where,
half asleep, half awake, she had lain since morning.

Audrey entered the pleasant chamber, furnished with what luxury the age
afforded, and stood before the sometime princess of her dreams. "Will you
not sit down?" asked Evelyn, in a low voice, and pointed to a chair.

"I had rather stand," answered Audrey. "Why did you call me? I was on my
way"-The other's clear eyes dwelt upon her. "Whither were you going?"

"Out of your house," said Audrey simply, "and out of your life."

Evelyn folded her hands in her silken lap, and looked out upon river and
sky and ceaseless drift of colored leaves. "You can never go out of my
life," she said. "Why the power to vex and ruin was given you I do not
know, but you have used it. Why did you run away from Fair View?"

"That I might never see Mr. Haward again," answered Audrey. She held her
head up, but she felt the stab. It had not occurred to her that hers was
the power to vex and ruin; apparently that belonged elsewhere.

Evelyn turned from the window, and the two women, the princess and the
herdgirl, regarded each other. "Oh, my God!" cried Evelyn. "I did not know
that you loved him so!"