"Miss West," she said, "what I have to say is not going to be very agreeable to either of us. It is going to be painful perhaps—and it is going to take a long while to explain—"
"It need not take long," said Valerie, without raising her eyes from her stitches; "it requires only a word to tell me that you and your father and mother do not wish your brother to marry me."
She looked up quietly, and her eyes met Lily's:
"I promise not to marry him," she said. "You are perfectly right. He belongs to his own family; he belongs in his own world."
She looked down again at her sewing with a faint smile:
"I shall not attempt to enter that world as his wife, Mrs. Collis, or to draw him out of it…. And I hope that you will not be anxious any more."
She laid aside her work and rose to her slender height, smilingly, as though the elder woman had terminated the interview; and Lily, utterly confounded, rose, too, as Valerie offered her hand in adieu.
"Miss West," she began, not perfectly sure of what she was saying, "I—scarcely dare thank you—for what you have said—for—my—brother's—sake—"
Valerie laughed: "I would do much more than that for him, Mrs. Collis…. Only I must first be sure of what is really the best way to serve him."
Lily's gloved hand tightened over hers; and she laid the other one over it: