“I could not sleep, I could not sleep,” she murmured, “if I did not know they were on the way.”

In answer to the bell Henry appeared, and Laura gave him the letters, with orders to mail them at once in the nearest box.

When it was all over she sat down again at her desk, and leaning an elbow upon it, covered her eyes with her hand for a long moment. She felt suddenly very tired, and when at last she lowered her hand, her fingers were wet. But in the end she grew calmer. She felt that, at all events, she had vindicated herself, that her life would begin again tomorrow with a clean page; and when at length she fell asleep, it was to the dreamless unconsciousness of an almost tranquil mind.

She slept late the next morning and breakfasted in bed between ten and eleven. Then, as the last vibrations of last night’s commotion died away, a very natural curiosity began to assert itself. She wondered how each of the three men “would take it.” In spite of herself she could not keep from wishing that she could be by when they read their dismissals.