Page:Conflict (1927).pdf/344

 Sheilah. Cicely had often told him, with eyes that shone, that she loved Sheilah. It was, in fact, her love for Sheilah that first stirred again Roger's ardor for Cicely.

Moreover, if he should marry Cicely he would be able to help Sheilah. His income had increased to a depressing amount (depressing as compared to the happiness it gave him) in the last few years. Cicely's income had diminished since her father's death, and enough for her to think twice, now, before buying another horse, or a new automobile. Married to Cicely, he would be allowed to share her burden of the education of Sheilah's children, which Cicely had made her responsibility. What joy it would give him to send Laetitia abroad next summer with a chaperon; and Roddie to Antioch College next fall, as Cicely had once suggested; and possibly—possibly, if Cicely thought well of it, together they could provide a more fitting home for Sheilah and her children to live in.

The vision of the ugly, narrow brown house kept returning to Roger, with unpleasant vividness. What if he could build her a house, sometime, of her own—broad and spreading; with low, gracious lines; white with dark green blinds; in Terry if that was where she would be happiest; and surround her with beauty and comfort. And then—exciting possibility—drop in on her sometimes (with Cicely,