Gladys smiled and was silent.
"It is better than Amherst and six months in Europe, you are thinking," Stephanie added. "And you're quite right; that was hell—perfect hell."
Gladys picked up her hand-glass and studied her face in an impersonal way—as though it were the face of a stranger.
"And you think," she said presently, "it would be a heaven with Pendleton?"
"By comparison, yes—a perfect heaven," was the answer.
"You would be willing to risk it?"
Stephanie ceased playing with her braid, and leaning forward took a cigarette from the case on the table.
"Yes, I should be willing to risk it," she replied,—"if he were to ask me—and Lorraine were out of the way."
"I think," said Gladys, laying aside the mirror and drawing her slender feet up under her, "I think he will ask you, if Lorraine gets out of the way in a reasonable time. But you mustn't expect him to wait forever—a man is a fickle beast at best, you know."