She had never learned to live with her own thoughts, and to be confronted with them through such hours of lucid misery made the confused wretchedness of her previous vigil seem easily bearable.
Daylight disbanded the phantom crew, and made it clear to her that she would hear from Selden before noon; but the day passed without his writing or coming.

Lily remained at home, lunching and dining alone with her aunt, who complained of flutterings of the heart, and talked icily on general topics.

Mrs.Peniston went to bed early, and when she had gone Lily sat down and wrote a note to Selden.

She was about to ring for a messenger to despatch it when her eye fell on a paragraph in the evening paper which lay at her elbow: "Mr.Lawrence Selden was among the passengers sailing this afternoon for Havana and the West Indies on the Windward Liner Antilles." She laid down the paper and sat motionless, staring at her note.

She understood now that he was never coming--that he had gone away because he was afraid that he might come.