'Gilbert has been very good to me, Lyddy. He will forget all the harm I have done him, and I shall be his wife.'
The other could find no word for a moment.
'Are you glad of this, Lyddy?'
'I don't know what to think or say,' her sister replied, looking at her with half-tearful earnestness. 'Did you always mean this, when you said you were coming here soon?'
'No, not always. But I was able to do it at last. Now I shall rest, dear sister.'
'You are sure that this is right? It isn't only a fancy, that you'll be sorry for, that'll make everything worse in the end?'
'I shall never be sorry, and everything will be better, Lyddy.'
They kissed each other.
'Come, dear, I mustn't wait.'
They walked quickly and without speaking as far as the lights and noise of Westminster Bridge Road. For them the everyday movement of the street had no meaning; such things were the mere husk of life; each was absorbed in her own being.