Valerie sat with folded hands looking at her.

"How do you think you could stand that desolation?"

"Arizona?"

"Yes."

"There is another desolation I dread more."

"Do you really love him so?"

Rita slowly turned from the window and looked at her.

"Yes," she said.

[Illustration: "'And they—the majority of them—are, after all, just men.'">[

"Does he know it, Rita?"