And I suppose," she said, rising impatiently, "if I were to stay away forty years I should find Lucy when I came back, with white hair maybe, but sitting calmly sewing, not caring whether there was a man in the world or not!" Lucy laughed, but did not even blush.
Mrs.Waldeaux presently said good-by, and Clara went home with her to spend the night.

Lucy was left alone upon the piazza.

It was there that George Waldeaux saw her again.
This had been the hardest day of his life.

He rose that morning telling himself with an oath that he would earn the money to buy his own food or never eat again.

His mother had sent him a cheque by post.
He tore it up and went out of his cheap lodging-house without breakfast.