“I had my Blue Castle,” said Valancy, laughing a little. She was pleased that Cissy had thought of her like this. She had never suspected that anybody liked or admired or wondered about her. She told Cissy all about her Blue Castle. She had never told any one about it before.

“Every one has a Blue Castle, I think,” said Cissy softly. “Only every one has a different name for it. I had mine — once.”

She put her two thin little hands over her face. She did not tell Valancy — then — who had destroyed her Blue Castle. But Valancy knew that, whoever it was, it was not Barney Snaith.