"I am in an uncertain frame of mind," Louise confessed. "I really can't decide about anything."
Sophy poured herself out some coffee.
"I think," she said, "that you'll have to decide about John before long."
"About John, indeed!" Louise exclaimed lightly. "Who gave you the right to call him by his Christian name?"
Sophy colored.
"I suppose I have just dropped into it," she remarked. "Tell me what you have decided to do, Louise?"
"Why should I do anything at all?"
"You know very well," Sophy insisted, "that you have encouraged John Strangewey shamefully. You have persuaded him to live up here, to make new friends, and to start an entirely new mode of life, just in the hope that some day you will marry him."
"Have I?" Louise asked. "Then I suppose I must keep my word—some day!"
Sophy drew her chair a little nearer to her friend's. She passed her arm around Louise's waist; their heads almost touched.