His silence was getting unbearable, when he stopped, and said gently, "I thank you, Helen.

I do not understand it all, but that's no matter.

Only, don't you see, it doesn't make any difference?
If she had been going to care, I should have known it long ago." This was very vague to Helen; she wondered if Lois had refused him again.
But Gifford began to talk quietly of his life in Mercer, and she did not venture to say anything more.

"After all, they must work out their own salvation," she thought.

"No one can help them, when they both know the facts." She listened a little absently to Gifford, who was speaking of the lack of any chance for advancement in Mercer.