Chapter 32

“Oh, I know. Yes, I’m ‘still young’—but that’s so different from _young_,” said Valancy bitterly. For a moment she was tempted to tell Barney why her years had nothing to do with her future; but she did not. She was not going to think of death tonight. “Though I never was really young,” she went on—“until tonight,” she added in her heart. “I never had a life like other girls. You couldn’t understand. Why”—she had a desperate desire that Barney should know the worst about her—“I didn’t even love my mother. Isn’t it …