Thus she kept her lamp trimmed and burning to receive the bridegroom when he should come.
But, another lesson she learned, perhaps unconsciously. Her standard of values began to shift and change. Sometimes the dollar–mark grew blurred in her mind's eye, and shaped itself into letters that spelled such words as «truth» and «honor» and now and then just «kindness.» Let us make a likeness of one who hunts the moose or elk in some mighty wood. He sees a little dell, mossy and embowered, where a rill trickles, babbling to him of rest and comfort. At these times the spear of Nimrod himself grows blunt.
So, Nancy wondered sometimes if Persian lamb was always quoted at its market value by the hearts that it covered.
One Thursday evening Nancy left the store and turned across Sixth Avenue westward to the laundry. She was expected to go with Lou and Dan to a musical comedy.
Dan was just coming out of the laundry when she arrived. There was a queer, strained look on his face.
«I thought I would drop around to see if they had heard from her,» he said.
«Heard from who?» asked Nancy. «Isn't Lou there?»
«I thought you knew,» said Dan. «She hasn't been here or at the house where she lived since Monday. She moved all her things from there. She told one of the girls in the laundry she might be going to Europe.»
«Hasn't anybody seen her anywhere?» asked Nancy.
Dan looked at her with his jaws set grimly, and a steely gleam in his steady gray eyes.