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 2019

Editors
Gisele Azimi
Hojong Kim
Shafiq Alam
Takanari Ouchi
Neale R. Neelameggham
Alafara Abdullahi Baba
The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series
Gisele Azimi Hojong Kim
•

Shafiq Alam Takanari Ouchi

•

Neale R. Neelameggham
Alafara Abdullahi Baba
Editors

Rare Metal Technology 2019

123
Editors
Gisele Azimi Takanari Ouchi
University of Toronto University of Tokyo
Toronto, ON, Canada Tokyo, Japan

Hojong Kim Neale R. Neelameggham

The Pennsylvania State University IND LLC
University Park, PA, USA South Jordan, UT, USA

Shafiq Alam Alafara Abdullahi Baba

University of Saskatchewan University of Ilorin
Saskatoon, SK, Canada Ilorin, Nigeria

ISSN 2367-1181 ISSN 2367-1696 (electronic)

The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series
ISBN 978-3-030-05739-8 ISBN 978-3-030-05740-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05740-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018964007

© The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or
for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

Rare Metal Technology 2019 is the proceedings of the symposium on Rare Metal
Extraction & Processing sponsored by the Hydrometallurgy and Electrometallurgy
Committee of the TMS Extraction and Processing Division. The symposium has
been organized to encompass the extraction of rare metals as well as rare extraction
processing techniques used in metal production and mineral processing. This is the
sixth symposium since 2014.
This symposium intends to cover research and developments in the extraction
and processing of less common, rare metals that are not covered by other TMS
symposia. These elements include antimony, bismuth, barium, beryllium, boron,
calcium, chromium, gallium, germanium, hafnium, indium, manganese, molybde-
num, platinum group metals, rare earth metals, rhenium, scandium, selenium,
sodium, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, gold, and tungsten. These are rare metals of
low tonnage sales compared with high tonnage metals, such as iron, copper, nickel,
lead, tin, zinc, or light metals, such as aluminium, magnesium, or titanium and
electronic metalloid silicon. Rare processing includes biometallurgy, hydrometal-
lurgy, electrometallurgy, supercritical fluid extraction, as well as extraction of
values from electric arc furnace (EAF) dusts, waste electrical and electronic
equipment (WEEE) and less common waste streams not discussed in recycling
symposia. Rare high-temperature processes include microwave heating, solar–
thermal reaction synthesis, molten salt electrochemical processes, cold crucible
synthesis of the rare metals, and the design of extraction equipment used in these
processes as well as laboratory and pilot plant studies.
This volume covers extraction and processing techniques of platinum group
metals, rare earth elements as well as other less common metals, such as lead,
antimony, molybdenum, tungsten, chromium, titanium, and vanadium, including
electrochemical processing, aqueous processing, biological separation, microwave
heating, and supercritical extraction.

v
vi Preface

We acknowledge the efforts of the symposium organizers and proceedings

editors: Gisele Azimi, Hojong Kim, Shafiq Alam, Takanari Ouchi,
Neale R. Neelameggham, and Alafara Abdullahi Baba. The support from TMS staff
members Matt Baker and Patricia Warren is greatly appreciated in assembling and
publishing the proceedings. We sincerely thank all the authors, speakers, and
participants and look forward to continued collaboration in the advancement of
science and technology in the area of rare metal extraction and processing.

Gisele Azimi
Lead Organizer
Contents

Part I Rare Metals I

Feasibility of Copper Recovery from Spent Deposited Sludge
of Transformer Oil (DSTO) for Industrial Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Alafara Abdullahi Baba, Joshua S. Ayodele, Oloduowo M. Ameen,
Abdulrasaq Jimoh, Folahan A. Adekola, Abdul G. F. Alabi,
Marili F. Zubair, Kuranga I. Ayinla, Abdullah S. Ibrahim,
Mustapha A. Raji, Daud T. Olaoluwa, Aishat Y. Abdulkareem
and Fausat T. Olasinde
Leaching and Recovery of an Oxide Gold Concentrate Using
Ammoniacal Thiosulfate Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Zhonglin Dong, Tao Jiang, Bin Xu, Yongbin Yang and Qian Li
A Multi-step Process for the Cleaner Utilization of Vanadium-Bearing
Converter Slag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Junyi Xiang, Guishang Pei, Qingyun Huang, Wei Lv, Mingrui Yang,
Kai Hu and Xuewei Lv
Efficient Extraction of V(V) in Aqueous Solution
by Microemulsion System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Yun Guo, Danqing Li, Bing Xie and Hong-Yi Li
A Novel Approach for Pre-concentrating Vanadium
from Stone Coal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Daya Wang and Baijun Yan
Study on the Roasting Mechanism of Vanadium–Chromium Slag
with Sodium Hydroxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Minmin Lin, Chengjie Wang, Bing Xie and Hong-Yi Li

vii
viii Contents

Part II Rare Metals II

Supercritical Fluid Extraction for Urban Mining of Rare
Earth Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Jiakai Zhang, John Anawati, Yuxiang Yao and Gisele Azimi
Recovery of Scandium by Leaching Process from Brazilian
Red Mud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Amilton Barbosa Botelho Junior, Raquel Húngaro Costa,
Denise Crocce Romano Espinosa and Jorge Alberto Soares Tenório
Selective Precipitation of Th and Rare-Earth Elements
from HCl Leach Liquor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Haydar Güneş, Hüseyin Eren Obuz and Murat Alkan

Part III Rare Metals III

Experimental Study on the Treatment of Zinc-Containing Rotary
Hearth Furnace Dust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Shilei Ren, Xiaoping Liang, Zhongbing Tu, Qian Tang, Xiangguan Yang
and Yu Wang
Recovery of Manganese by Roasting-Ammonia Leaching
from Low-Grade Manganese Carbonate Ores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Zhongbing Tu, Xiaoping Liang, Xiangguan Yang, Shilei Ren,
Chengbo Wu and Yu Wang
General Rules for Deep Purification of Low-Grade
Molybdenite Concentrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Junjie Yu, Hu Sun, Jun Luo, Guanghui Li and Tao Jiang
Production of High-Purity Titanium Dioxide from Spent Selective
Catalytic Reduction (SCR) Catalyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Gyeonghye Moon, Jin-Hyung Kim, Yeon-Chul Cho, In-hyeok Choi,
Hee-Nam Kang, Tae-Hyuk Lee, Jin-Young Lee and Jungshin Kang
Reduction of TiCl4 to TiH2 with CaH2 in Presence of Ni Powder . . . . . 131
Mohammad Rezaei Ardani, Aws Sadoon Mohammed Al Janabi,
Sanjith Udayakumar, Sheikh Abdul Rezan Sheikh Abdul Hamid,
Abdul Rahman Mohamed, H. L. Lee and Ismail Ibrahim
Nepheline Syenite—An Alternative Source for Potassium
and Aluminium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Jayashree Samantray, Amit Anand, Barsha Dash, Malay K. Ghosh
and Ajay K. Behera
Contents ix

Part IV Rare Metals IV

Recovery Vanadium from Vanadium-Bearing
Hazardous Residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Zhigan Deng, Xingbin Li, Chang Wei, Gang Fan, Cunxiong Li
and Minting Li
Study on Thiosulfate Leaching of Gold by Cycling
Barren Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Yongbin Yang, Meixiang Lai, Qiang Zhong, Qian Li, Bin Xu
and Tao Jiang

Part V Poster Session

Leaching of Tellurium and Bismuth from the Dashuigou Tellurium
Deposit in H2SO4 and FeCl3 Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Li-Xiong Shao, Jiang Diao, Liang Liu and Bing Xie
New Dissolution Process of Iridium to Hydrochloric Acid . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Yuto Kobayashi, Shota Yamada and Takashi Nagai
Research on the Carbothermic Reduction Procedure of SrSO4
with Carbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Si-ming Chen, Dong-ping Duan and Xing-wu Zou
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Subject Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
About the Editors

Gisele Azimi is an Assistant Professor cross-appointed

between the Departments of Chemical Engineering and
Applied Chemistry and Materials Science and
Engineering at the University of Toronto (UofT). She
is also a registered professional engineer in Ontario. Her
research program is aligned well with the
“Sustainability” and “Advanced Materials and
Manufacturing” research themes. In her research pro-
gram, she strives for achieving a sustainable future and
mitigating the adverse effects of climate change through:
(1) advanced recycling and urban mining of waste
electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) utilizing
innovative recycling processes based on supercritical
fluids; (2) industrial solid waste reduction through waste
valorization to produce strategic materials like rare earth
elements; (3) development of innovative materials with
unique properties with far-reaching applications in
structural and energy material sectors; and (4) energy
storage focusing on the development of a new gener-
ation of rechargeable batteries made of aluminium. She
received her Ph.D. in the Department of Chemical
Engineering and Applied Chemistry from UofT in 2010.
Before returning to UofT as faculty in 2014, she
completed two postdoctoral appointments at MIT in the
Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and
Mechanical Engineering. She has received a number of
awards including Dean’s Spark Professorship, Early
Researcher Award, TMS Light Metals/Extraction and
Processing Subject Award—Recycling, and Connaught
New Researcher Award.

xi
xii About the Editors

Hojong Kim is an Assistant Professor of Materials

Science and Engineering, and Norris B. McFarlane
Faculty Professor at the Pennsylvania State University.
He received his B.S. from Seoul National University in
South Korea in 2000 and Ph.D. at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2004 both in
Materials Science and Engineering. His doctoral
research sought to identify the corrosion mechanisms
of constructional alloys in high-temperature and
high-pressure steam environments under Prof. Ronald
Latanision in the Uhlig Corrosion Laboratory at MIT.
After graduate research, he worked as a Senior Research
Scientist at Samsung Corning Precision Glass Co. Ltd.
and as a project lead to improve the process yield for
TFT-LCD glass melting processes. After five years of
industrial experience, he returned to MIT as a postdoc-
toral associate to contribute to the growing need for
sustainable technology. He conducted research on
high-temperature electrochemical processes, including
molten oxide electrolysis for carbon-free steel produc-
tion with a focus on developing inert anode materials in
molten slags as well as molten salt–liquid metal batteries
for large-scale energy storage.
His current research interests embrace the develop-
ment of environment-friendly electrochemical processes
for resource extraction/recycling, corrosion-resistant
materials, and energy storage systems. He was awarded
The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS)
Young Leaders Professional Development Award in
2013 from the Extraction and Processing Division. In
2015, he was chosen to receive a Doctoral New
Investigator Award from the American Chemical
Society Petroleum Research Fund. He is currently
leading efforts to separate fission products (rare earth
and alkali/alkaline earth elements) from molten salt
electrolytes used for recycling used nuclear fuel. He was
the lead organizer of past Rare Metal Extraction &
Processing Symposiums at the TMS Annual Meeting
(2017–2018) and is the Chair of the Hydrometallurgy
and Electrometallurgy Committee of the Extraction and
Processing Division.
About the Editors xiii

Shafiq Alam is an Associate Professor at the

University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He is an expert
in the areas of mining and mineral processing with
extensive experience in industrial operations, manage-
ment, engineering, design, consulting, teaching,
research, and professional services. As a productive
researcher, he has secured two patents and has
produced over 160 peer-reviewed research publications.
He is the co-editor of seven books and is an associate
editor of the International Journal of Mining, Materials
and Metallurgical Engineering (IJMMME). He is the
winner of the 2014 TMS Extraction and Processing
Division’s Technology Award.
With extensive relevant industry experience as a
registered professional engineer, he has worked on
projects with many different mining industries. He is an
Executive Committee Member of the Hydrometallurgy
Section of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy
and Petroleum (CIM). During 2015–2017, he served as
the Chair of the Hydrometallurgy and Electrometallurgy
Committee of the Extraction and Processing Division
(EPD) of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
(TMS). He is a co-organizer of many symposia at the
international conferences through CIM and TMS. He is
one of the founding organizers of the Rare Metal
Extraction & Processing Symposium at TMS.

Takanari Ouchi is a Research Associate in the

Institute of Industrial Science at the University of
Tokyo. He received his Ph.D. in Nano-Science and
Nano-Engineering from Waseda University in 2011. In
this tenure, he developed electrochemical deposition
processes to fabricate metal nano-structures with both
well-controlled crystallinity and uniformity at the single
nano-meter scale, and demonstrated the applicability
of these processes for the fabrication of bit-patterned
magnetic recording media for future hard disk drives.
After completing his doctoral degree, he joined MIT,
where he developed liquid metal batteries, which are, in
principle, bidirectional electrolysis (electro-refining)
cells, for application in grid-scale energy storage. As a
research scientist, he led the systematic investigation
of the electrochemical properties of liquid metal elec-
trodes in molten salt electrolytes and developed novel
xiv About the Editors

lithium, calcium, and sodium liquid metal batteries.

Since he began work as a Research Associate at the
University of Tokyo in 2017, he has developed new
recycling processes for rare metals and precious metals
using pyrometallurgical and electrometallurgical meth-
ods. As a member of the Hydrometallurgy and
Electrometallurgy Committee of TMS, he has con-
stantly contributed to the development of the vibrant
field of metal extraction, organized technical symposia
at TMS meetings, and solicited papers as a guest
editor of JOM. He has earned several awards and
honors, such as the TMS EPD Young Leaders
Professional Development Award in 2015, based on
his contributions to electrometallurgical processing.

Neale R. Neelameggham is “The Guru” at IND LLC,

involved in international technology and management
consulting in the field of critical metals and associated
chemicals, thiometallurgy, energy technologies, soil
biochemical reactor design, lithium-ion battery design,
and agricultural uses of coal. He was a Visiting Expert
at Beihang University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Beijing, China, and a plenary speaker at the Light Metal
Symposium in South Africa on the topic of low carbon
dioxide emission processes for magnesium.
He has more than 38 years of expertise in magnesium
production and was involved in process development
of the startup company NL Magnesium through the
present US Magnesium LLC, UT, until 2011. He and
Brian Davis authored the ICE-JNME award-winning
(2016) article “21st Century Global Anthropogenic
Warming Convective Model.” He is presently develop-
ing “stored renewable energy in coal” Agricoal™ for
greening arid soils and has authored an e-book
Eco-stoichiometry of Anthropogenic CO2 That Returns
to Earth on a new discovery of quantification of
increasing CO2 returns to Earth.
He holds 16 patents and patent applications, and has
published several technical papers. He has served in the
Magnesium Committee of the TMS Light Metals Division
(LMD) since its inception in 2000 and chaired it in 2005,
and in 2007 he was made a permanent co-organizer for the
Magnesium Technology Symposium. He has been a
About the Editors xv

member of the Reactive Metals Committee, Recycling

Committee, and Titanium Committee, and was a Program
Committee Representative for LMD.
He was the inaugural chair, when in 2008, LMD and the
Extraction and Processing Division created the Energy
Committee, and he has been a coeditor of the Energy
Technology Symposium through the present. He received
the LMD Distinguished Service Award in 2010. While he
was the Chair of Hydrometallurgy and Electrometallurgy
Committee, he initiated the Rare Metal Technology
Symposium in 2014. He is the coeditor for the 2019
symposia on Magnesium Technology, Energy
Technology, Rare Metal Technology, REWAS 2019,
and Solar Cell Silicon.

Alafara Abdullahi Baba is a Professor of Analytical/

Industrial and Materials Chemistry in the Faculty of
Physical Sciences, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. He holds
a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Ilorin in
2008. His dissertation titled “Recovery of Zinc and Lead
from Sphalerite, Galena and Waste Materials by
Hydrometallurgical Treatments” was judged the best in
the area of Physical Sciences, University of Ilorin,
Nigeria, in 2010. Until his current appointment as Head,
Department of Industrial Chemistry in 2017, he was the
Deputy Director of Central Research Laboratories,
University of Ilorin (2014–2017). He is a Fellow of the
Chemical Society of Nigeria (FCSN), a Fellow of
Materials Science & Technology Society of Nigeria
(FMSN), and currently a member of the Hydromet-
allurgy and Electrometallurgy Committee of The
Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS). He has a
keen interest in teaching, community service, and
research covering solid minerals and material processing
through hydrometallurgical routes, preparation of phyl-
losilicates, porous and bio-ceramic materials for indus-
trial value additions. He has more than hundred
(100) publications spreading through national and inter-
national acclaimed journals of high impact and has
attended many national and international workshops,
conferences, and research exhibitions to launch cam-
paigns of his research. He is the recipient of several
awards and honors including 2015 MISRA AWARD
of the Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers (IIME) for
the best paper on Electro-/Hydro-Bio-Processing at the
xvi About the Editors

IIME International Seminar on Mineral Processing

Technology—2014 held at Andhra University,
Visakhapatnam, India; 2015 MTN Season of Surprise
Prize as Best Lecturer in the University of Ilorin, Nigeria,
category; Award of Meritorious Service in recognition of
immense contributions to the development of the Central
Research Laboratories, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
(2014–2017); and Exceptional Award in Recognition of
Outstanding, Selfless Service, Contribution and
Performance toward Humanitarian Services by Nigeria
Association of Physical Science Students among others.
He has supervised and is still supervising undergraduate
and postgraduate research work and currently is serving
as an external examiner to postgraduate researchers in
universities within and outside Nigeria.
 Part I
Rare Metals I
Feasibility of Copper Recovery
from Spent Deposited Sludge
of Transformer Oil (DSTO) for Industrial
Applications

Alafara Abdullahi Baba, Joshua S. Ayodele, Oloduowo M. Ameen,

Abdulrasaq Jimoh, Folahan A. Adekola, Abdul G. F. Alabi, Marili F. Zubair,
Kuranga I. Ayinla, Abdullah S. Ibrahim, Mustapha A. Raji,
Daud T. Olaoluwa, Aishat Y. Abdulkareem and Fausat T. Olasinde

Abstract Due to fluctuating crude oil prices and a widespread desire to diver-
sify Nigeria’s economy, recycling initiatives are preferred when addressing eco-
nomic downfall. With increasing demands for metals and gradual depletion of non-
renewable resources, there is a growing need to recover metals from secondary
sources. The recycling from metal wastes is necessary as the cost of safe disposal of
hazardous components is quite high compared to the amount of waste produced and
limited storage capacity. Depending on the type and capacity, typical transformer
oil contains 90–1485 kg of oil with a varying degree of recoverable sludge contain-
ing precious metals after degradation. In this work, leaching and solvent extraction
techniques were adopted to treat spent DSTO obtained from Ayetoro III 300kVA Dis-

A. A. Baba (B) · J. S. Ayodele · F. A. Adekola · M. F. Zubair · K. I. Ayinla · A. S. Ibrahim

M. A. Raji · D. T. Olaoluwa · A. Y. Abdulkareem · F. T. Olasinde
Department of Industrial Chemistry, University of Ilorin, P.M.B 1515, Ilorin 240003, Nigeria
e-mail: baalafara@yahoo.com
O. M. Ameen
Department of Chemistry, University of Ilorin, P.M.B 1515, Ilorin 240003, Nigeria
A. Jimoh
Department of Technical Operations, Molete Business Hub, Oluyole Industrial Estate, Ibadan,
Nigeria
A. G. F. Alabi
Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Ilorin, P.M.B 1515, Ilorin
240003, Nigeria
A. G. F. Alabi
Department of Material Science and Engineering, Kwara State University, P.M.B 1530, Malete,
Nigeria
A. Y. Abdulkareem
National Mathematical Centre, Sheda-Kwali, P.M.B 118, Abuja, Nigeria
F. T. Olasinde
Chemistry Advance Research Centre, Sheda Science and Technology Complex,
FCT, P.M.B 186, Garki, Abuja, Nigeria

© The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society 2019 3

G. Azimi et al. (eds.), Rare Metal Technology 2019, The Minerals, Metals & Materials
Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05740-4_1
4 A. A. Baba et al.

tribution Transformer having 245-kg oil weight capacity with 25 kg of recoverable

combined sludge oil mixture. At optimal conditions, the leach liquor was accordingly
treated and beneficiated to achieve 96.8% copper recovery efficiency.

Keywords Transformer oil · Deposited sludge · Solvent extraction · Leaching

Regeneration · Copper · Cyanex® 272

Introduction

For many decades and specifically since 1926, transformer oil has been a major threat
to the environment due to its high content in polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) [1].
Globally, 30–40 billion litres of mineral oil is presently utilized in transformers and
the demand will tremendously increase as time goes on [2]. The transformer oil serves
as an insulator and coolant within the transformer. Consequently, both government
and environmental regulatory bodies currently enforce strict environmental laws to
drastically reduce both accidental and non-accidental hazards associated with mineral
transformer oil utilization [3]. However, the space between the fibrous insulation
coils filled up with insulating oil enhances the dielectric capacities of the insulation
depending on the dielectric strength, viscosity, specific gravity and pour point indices.
The degradation or deterioration of transformer oil with oxygen takes place as
soon as the equipment is energized which causes a chemical reaction to occur when
the oil is exposed to mixtures of heat, oxygen, core and coil components. As the
oxidation reaction occurs, mineral acids and polar compounds such as ketones, alco-
hols and peroxides are liberated and subsequently result in sludge formation [4]. The
damage to the oil insulation in the transformer is intensified by the transformer age,
in which the insulating paper applied will deteriorate continuously while the trans-
former oil oxidizes progressively due to the presence of oxygen in the transformer
oil. In order to minimize the volume of high-voltage power within the transformer
as it compromises operational reliability, the goal is to develop a new technique with
higher dielectric and thermal conductivity capacities as a replacement for conven-
tional methods being used [5]. It is therefore pertinent that oil tests should be carried
out at regular intervals to ascertain its breakdown voltage as the sludge contents are
made up of precious heavy metals, such as Ni, Zn, Au, Cu and Co which may be
toxic, but could serve as a valuable industrial product if recovered and purified [4].
Hence, for excellent environmental, societal and economic benefits, oxidized oils can
be re-applied after a thorough regeneration where all unwanted pollutants including
water, acidic components and other associated gangues will be significantly reduced
and potentially eliminated [6].
The enrichment of transformer oil is achieved and categorized through: filtering,
purification and regeneration methods. The filtering process takes place at 40 °C and
involves oil filtering; purification with a drying process commenced by heating the
oil to a maximum of 90 °C; and regeneration by degassing achieved combining the
second method with additional oxidant additives [6]. Currently, the transformer oil
Feasibility of Copper Recovery from Spent Deposited Sludge … 5

regeneration is a green technology and adsorption technique seems to be a key step in

regeneration [7], but due to the large volume of wastes generated via adsorption [8],
considerable attention is given to the development of a simple, low-waste, low-cost
and eco-friendly route in the purification and regeneration. The metal extraction and
purification processes of some secondary wastes including spent transformer oil can
be employed by either pyro or hydrometallurgical techniques or combination of the
two. However, the hydrometallurgical route has been established to be of a low-cost,
less waste generation and eco-friendly technique for enriching materials with low
metal contents [9–12]. Considering the aforementioned reasons, the characterization,
treatment and extraction of copper from spent deposited sludge of transformer oil
was treated in chloride media by the CYANEX® 272 extractant in kerosene diluent.
The purified copper solution obtained was further beneficiated as copper oxide, a
valuable industrial copper compound with wide arrays of industrial applications
such as p-type semiconductor indicators [13].

Materials and Method

The spent sludge of transformer oil used for this study was sourced from Ayetoro III
300 kVA, 11/0.415 kV Distribution Transformer under Baboko Business Hub, Ibadan
Electricity Distribution Company, Ilorin Kwara State, Nigeria. This transformer has
245-kg oil weight capacity with 25 kg of recoverable combined sludge oil mix-
ture [4]. All reagents used were of analytical (BDH) grade. Deionized water and
doubly distilled kerosene were used in the preparation of all aqueous and organic
solutions.
Physicochemical and chemical characterizations of the DSTO, including selected
products at optimized leaching condition, were carried out using Buck Scientific
ACCUSYS 211 Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), Agilent 19091S – 4HP –
5MS Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS), EMPY 6000 X-ray diffrac-
tion (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and Leo 1450 with Lab6 Filament scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) techniques [4, 13].

Leaching Tests

Leaching experiments were carried out in 250 ml glass reactor with a mechanical stir-
rer and temperature control unit. 10 g/L of the dried/processed deposited sludge was
reacted independently with a hydrochloric acid solution of varying concentrations
(0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mol/L). The reaction time was kept constant at 120 min for
each experiment. The solution in the reactor after each leaching was filtered; both
residue and leachates were collected for further characterization [12]. The extent
of dissolution showed 28.29, 45.22, 74.56, 92.83 and 90.21% reaction efficiencies.
6 A. A. Baba et al.

However, the pregnant leach solution (PLS) collected at optimal leaching was used
for the solvent extraction studies [4].

Solvent Extraction/Beneficiation Tests

Solvent extraction experiment was performed using the PLS obtained at the optimized
condition and then equilibrated with an equal volume of organic solution containing
a known concentration of the CYANEX® 272 extractant in kerosene diluent at room
temperature (27 ± 2 °C) and shaken for 25 min. Equilibrium pH was adjusted by the
direct addition of concentrated HCl (0.1 mol/L) and NaOH (0.1 mol/L) solutions with
HANNAH pH metre. The aqueous solutions were analyzed for metal concentrations
by Buck Scientific ACCUSYS 211 atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The free
acid content was determined by the titration method with pH control. The concen-
tration of copper in the organic phase was calculated from a difference between the
initial concentration in PLS and the concentration in raffinate at fixed organic/aqueous
(O/A) phase ratio [14]. The extraction mechanism by Cyanex® 272 was examined at
optimal conditions, prior to beneficiation activities.

Results and Discussion

Characterization Investigations

The results of the characterization of the spent deposited sludge transformer oil before
acid leaching are summarized in Table 1. This defines the current state of deposited
spent transformer oil (DSTO) compared to ASTM standard values (Table 1).
The elemental compositions of the DSTO by EDXRF gave SiO2 (17.07%), TiO2
(0.37%), P2 O5 (4.1%), Fe2 O3 (54.53%), CaO (6.75%), MgO (0.04%), Na2 O (0.3%),
K2 O (0.23), V2 O5 (0.03%), Cr2 O3 (0.055%), CuO (13.14%), ZnO (0.77%) and
Eu2 O3 (0.6%), respectively. However, the compositions of the PLS used for solvent
extraction studies contain: 1243.4 mg/L Cu2+ , 789.2 mg/L Fe2+ /Fe3+ , 110.7 mg/L
Ca2+ and 23.5 mg/L Al3+ . Prior solvent extraction investigations showed the iron
forming major gangues in the leach liquor was masked by adjusting the pH of the
solution from 1.2 to 3.6 with ammoniacal solution [15] to obtain the following results:
1239.6 mg/L Cu2+ , 0.6 mg/L Fe2+ /Fe3+ , 2.1 mg/L Ca2+ , and 1.2 mg/L Al3+ [4].
The GC-MS results of DSTO in Table 2 indicate the presence of compounds such
as Tridecane, Heptadecane, Nonadecane, 2-Bromodecane, 2-Buten-1-one, Octade-
cane, 4H-1,3-Benzochoxin-4-one, Pentadecane and Butylated hydroxytoluene.
Feasibility of Copper Recovery from Spent Deposited Sludge … 7

Table 1 Physicochemical properties of DSTO as compared with ASTM D1816 [4]

Property Experimental value ASTM D1816 STANDARD
Density 0.82 g cm−3 0.55–0.89 g cm−3
Viscosity| 9.7 cSt 3.0–12 cSt (max)
Flash point 140 °C 145 °C (max)
pH 4.27 5.5–8.2 (min–max)
Specific gravity 0.86 0.91 (max)
Cloud point 9 °C 7–15 °C
Water content 1.32 × 105 mg L−1 30 mg L−1
Free fatty acid 0.04 mg KOH q−1 oil 0.01–0.08 mg KOH q−1 oil
(min–max)
Acid number 0.8 mg KOH g−1 oil 0.01–0.03 KOH g−1 oil (min–max)
Pour point −7 °C −8 to −6 °C (min–max)
Boiling point 220 °C 120–230 °C (min–max)

Table 2 Compositions of Compound Yield

organic compounds present in
the processed spent Tridecane (C13 H28 ) 6.30
transformer oil (%) [4] Heptadecane (C17 H36 ) 10.24
Nonadecane (C19 H40 ) 3.17
2-Bromododecane (C12 H25 Br) 9.14
2-Buten-1-one (C13 H20 O) 4.78
Tritetracontane (C43 H88 ) 11.90
Octadecane (C18 H38 ) 4.48
Tetradecane (C14 H30 ) 13.38
4H-1,3-Benzochoxin-4-one (C10 H10 O5 ) 3.66
Pentadecane (C15 H32 ) 9.94
Butylated hydroxytoluene (C15 H24 O) 23.01
Total 100

Extraction Investigations

The solvent extraction studies revealed that the extent of copper extracted for spent
sludge liquor increases rapidly with increasing Cyanex® 272 concentration and equi-
librium pH at room temperature as follows:
(i) Effect of equilibrium pH: The effect of pH on the extraction of Cu from
its aqueous solution by 0.2 mol/L Cyanex® 272 in kerosene, experiments were
performed in the equilibrium pH ranges of 1–5 at 27 ± 2 °C for 25 min. The
results of the percent extraction of copper from 34.6 to 91.66% with increasing
pH from 1 to 4 are summarized in Fig. 1.
8 A. A. Baba et al.

Fig. 1 Equilibrium pH
variation on the percent of
Cu extracted by 0.2 mol/L
Cyanex® 272 in kerosene

Fig. 2 Percent of Cu
extracted by different
Cyanex concentrations at pH
4.0

Increasing the equilibrium pH above 4 decreases the percent of Cu extracted to

91.50% at pH 5. Thus, the drastic reduction with increasing solution pH may be
due to the fact that at high pH and apart from possible precipitation phenomena,
there is a considerable increase in distribution coefficient indices [4, 16].
(ii) Effect of Cyanex concentration: The effect of Cyanex® 272 concentrations on
copper extraction in the processed DSTO at optimal leaching at pH 4.0 was
examined. The percent of Copper extracted increases from 43.7 to 91.7% with
increasing Cyanex concentration from 0.05 to 0.2 mol/L. Also, increasing the
extractant concentration beyond 0.2 mol/L showed a decreasing extraction to
90.1% by 0.25 mol/L Cyanex solution (Fig. 2) [4].
Further purification of the copper solution at optimal extraction conditions was
examined through combinations of precipitation and crystallization techniques
to obtain a high-grade copper oxide (CuO: 96-900-9471; melting point 
1309 °C/1326 °C industrial standard) amenable for use as p-type semicon-
ductor. The operational hydrometallurgical scheme summarizing the analytical
techniques for the enrichment of spent deposited sludge for the recovery of pure
copper solution beneficiated as CuO is shown in Fig. 3.
Feasibility of Copper Recovery from Spent Deposited Sludge … 9

Fig. 3 A hydrometallurgical scheme for pure copper extraction from spent DSTO [4]

Conclusion

As the oil purification is required for keeping the transformer power voltage operating
at optimal capacity, successful regeneration of pure oxidized transformer oils by
combination of leaching and solvent extraction via hydrometallurgical route was
examined in this study leading to the following conclusions:
(i) The detailed characterization of DSTO results gave variation of the transformer
oil potency with respect to the ASTM D1819 regulations, indicating that the
transformer oil is suitable for re-refining for industrial value addition;
(ii) The dissolution of heavy metals especially copper from spent DSTO by acid
leaching and solvent extraction is possible;
(iii) At optimal leaching conditions, about 93% of initial 10 g/L DSTO sample was
reacted within 120 min. Also, extraction of copper by Cyanex® 272 increased
with increasing extractant concentration and equilibrium pH. A 0.1 mol/L
HCl solution was found to be efficiently stripped of about 94.8% copper from
organic loaded DSTO containing copper [4];
(iv) The technique employed in this work proposed an efficient purification and
regeneration of precious metals from spent DSTO, supporting recycling initia-
tives and employment creation.
10 A. A. Baba et al.

Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank:

1. Dr. Oliver Rouher and Mrs. Christine Salomon of Cytec Industries, Rungis Cedex, France for
their benevolence by supplying Cyanex® 272;
2. The Central Research Laboratories (CRL), University of Ilorin, Nigeria for assisting in aqueous
metal analyses by AAS; and
3. Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Nigeria for sponsorship to attend the 2019 TMS
Annual Meeting & Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, USA.

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pp 94–469
4. Baba AA, Ayodele JS, Ameen OM, Jimoh BA, Lawal A (2018) Characterisation and treatment
of spent deposited sludge of transformer oil (DSTO) by acid leaching and solvent extraction.
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based transformer oil nanofluids. IEEE Trans Dielectr Electr Insul 23(5):2757–2767
6. Safiddine L, Zafour AH, Fofana I, Skender A, Guerbas F, Boucherit A (2017) Transformer
oil reclamation by combining several strategies enhanced by the use of four adsorbents. IET
Gener Transm Distrib 11:2912–2920
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formers, pp 23–27
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Regeneration of insulating mineral oil by carbonated amorphous calcium phosphate-chitosan
adsorbent. Process Saf Environ Prot 85(B4):327–331
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Hydrometallurgy 75:169–176
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Hydrometallurgy 75:169–176
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of zinc by Cyanex® 272 in hydrochloric acid. Hydrometallurgy 109:187–193
12. Somer G, Nakisci Unlu A (2006) The effect of acid digestion on the recoveries of trace elements:
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allurgy 105:227–283
Leaching and Recovery of an Oxide Gold
Concentrate Using Ammoniacal
Thiosulfate Solutions

Zhonglin Dong, Tao Jiang, Bin Xu, Yongbin Yang and Qian Li

Abstract Thiosulfate leaching-resin adsorption recovery, an environmentally

friendly process, has been developed to efficiently extract gold from an oxide gold
concentrate. 80.5% of gold extraction could be achieved by thiosulfate leaching under
the conditions of (NH4 )2 S2 O3 0.2 mol/L, CuSO4 0.025 mol/L, NH3 1.5 mol/L and
leaching time 8 h, and the thiosulfate consumption was 53.6 kg/t-concentrate. IRA-
400 anion exchange resin was used to recover gold from the leach solution, and an
adsorption efficiency of 99.3% gold and 39.4% copper was attained. Two-step elu-
tion process, including pre-elution of copper with 0.5 mol/L (NH4 )2 S2 O3 followed
by gold elution with 2 mol/L NaCl + 0.5 mol/L Na2 SO3 was adopted, and 98.6% of
copper and 99.1% of gold could be successfully eluted from the resin.

Keywords Gold · Thiosulfate leaching · Recovery · Ion-exchange resin

Introduction

For the past century, cyanidation has been the predominant method for gold leach-
ing from ores owing to its simple process and low cost [1]. However, there has
been increasing public concern over the use of cyanide due to its strong toxicity.
In addition, cyanide leaching shows unsatisfactory performance on refractory gold
ores especially for those containing copper or “preg-robbing” carbon [2]. Thus, con-
siderable attention has been paid to the alternative lixiviants, the most promising of
which is thiosulfate. Compared with conventional cyanidation, thiosulfate leaching
has the advantages of lower toxicity, lower reagent costs and faster leaching rate,
particularly for some refractory ores, e.g. some carbonaceous gold ores [3].

Z. Dong · T. Jiang · B. Xu (B) · Y. Yang · Q. Li

School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083,
China
e-mail: xubincsu@csu.edu.cn

© The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society 2019 11

G. Azimi et al. (eds.), Rare Metal Technology 2019, The Minerals, Metals & Materials
Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05740-4_2
Another random document with
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 “Of course she’s very young,” he said, “but there doesn’t seem any
excuse for some of the things she said. She—I didn’t think women—even
girls—felt that way. I know it’s a sacrifice, but I thought every woman had
instincts.”
“Every woman has, but not always at this stage. Wait till the baby
comes.”
A funny, shaken smile came over Walter’s face.
“I’d do anything in the world to make it easy. But of course if she’s
going to hate it so——”
“It’s just her condition,” Cecily told him. “Lots of women are hysterical.
You’re utterly in the wrong, Walter, when you argue with her. You want to
soothe her, divert her. She’s just a child and she hasn’t had a bit of
experience.”
“She’s older than you were.”
“Della says I’m a different type, but I can remember, Walter, times when
the world frightened me to death. The only thing that helped was to feel that
Dick was going along with me.”
She stopped, and then went on again: “I don’t believe you ought to try to
make Della think of the serious things any more than she naturally will. Be
awfully considerate, fussy; spoil her—she likes that. Make father spoil her,
too. And remember, no matter how cross or queer she may be, that ignoring
all that is part of the penalty you have to pay for having a baby of your
own.”
“Della’s not your style,” said Walter for the hundredth time, “but, really,
if you would you could do a lot for her. She’s light on the surface, but
there’s more to her than you’d think. Awfully sweet and generous. If we did
have a baby and she had it to think about——”
“I know.”
“Will you help us through, Cecily? I don’t know much about such
things, and mother’s gone. Her own mother is rather dreadful. Boarding
house! We haven’t seen much of you lately, and that’s been all my fault,
too. But now it might be—you’d be an angel to sort of stand by Della.”
“Of course I will.”
“Is Della in your room?”
“Yes. Come up.”
 At the door of the room with the dim light they paused and listened, but
Della was not sobbing. They entered softly. She had turned on her side and
fallen asleep like a peaceful child.
“I’d say good-night to her,” said Cecily, and went downstairs again,
closing the door after her. For a moment the warmth at her heart persisted
and then loneliness, more devastating than ever, bitterness, jealousy of that
husband and wife upstairs—together—swept her.

CHAPTER XXVII

T HOSE first months in Washington took all the concentrated social skill
of Fliss. They were months when she felt with confusion that she was
playing a game with experts who could not be tricked. In the first place
she was only twenty-five, and youth, except in a débutante, was an anomaly
in the groups to which she sought ingress. The wives of the other Senators
had fifteen to forty years more to their credit than had she. In Carrington her
youth had been an asset. The older matrons petted her and the younger ones
envied her. But this was different. The qualities which were at a premium
here were not mere dash and chic style and dancing ability. It took brains to
be singled out here.
Luckily she had plenty of money, and she had availed herself of every
possible letter of introduction before she left Carrington. There were people
in Carrington who knew the people whose names she had studied in the
Washington papers and she had managed, not seeming too eager, to have a
letter written here and one there, and to see that the letters were followed
up. Her first two weeks had been spent in house-hunting, during which she
had had occasion to bless Matthew a thousand times for his affluence and
generosity. She found at last what she wanted in the proper part of town—a
conventional, not too large city house, tenanted by a Senator’s family last
year. The Senator had gone to a club when his family went to Europe, and
the house was available at an enormous rental. It had the advantage of
having been decorated the year before by the Senator’s wife and done in
admirable taste. Fliss sought an interior decorator, and with an uncanny
shrewdness furnished it. There was enough of the solid to keep it from
appearing faddish or nouveau; there was enough of the ugly to set off the
beautiful. There was, last and most of all, quite enough of the beautiful to
prove her taste.
 The first weeks in Washington reminded Fliss somewhat grimly of her
early encounters in Carrington. She went through the ordeal of the social
column again—the ordeal of those who read about the functions to which
they aspire and at which they were not attendant. Society columns are easy
reading only for those who are quite indifferent to personal mention or
omission, and they, of course, are the people who do not make a business of
reading them. But Fliss had the comfort of never becoming despondent as
she had in the old Carrington days. She had tools ready to her hand now and
she meant to forge her way with them. More than that, she had found a
work which was going to need all her wits and all her energies.
Matthew was busy constantly. He had been chosen for a good deal of
routine committee work to break him in, and he had little time for Fliss and
the observation of her labors. They went out together more than they had in
Carrington, but it was to more formal affairs.
“Washington doesn’t tend to make you chummy,” she said, one night,
leaning up against Matthew in the car as they were being whirled
homeward after a rather colorless dinner.
“Finding it hard work?” he asked.
“I love it,” she said lazily. “I love the sense of social intrigue. There’s
something to get your teeth into here. A lot to fight for. Out in Carrington, if
you do get to the top, what is there at the top except Mrs. Silverton’s
dinners? It’s fun, I mean, but it stops. You can see the top. Here it’s so much
more tangled, but so much more interesting.”
“You’re doing it very well,” answered Matthew. “You quite charmed
Senator Gates to-night. How did you do it?”
“Listened to him. Isn’t it queer how simple it is, as well as being so
difficult? All I did was to flatter him a little—most of that by looking at
him. But I had to be careful not to do it too much, because I mustn’t get the
reputation of being a Western vamp. It’s just drawing that line.”
“Clever girl!”
“I wish you were susceptible to flattery,” she said irrelevantly, “and I’d
tell you I thought you could give the bunch of them cards and spades.”
He patted her hand and then, apparently feeling that insufficient, turned
her face up to his and kissed her. She flushed a little at the casual caress,
and then turned to look out of the window. The street lamps showed on her
face that little wistful, half appealing expression which was making her
piquancy so much more mysterious.
“Do you like it all, Matthew?”
“I’m interested, Fliss. I’m finding out about lots of things I wondered
about. Some are true and some aren’t. Of course, you mustn’t expect me to
do much for years. I’m pretty crude. I’ve got to learn.”
“Crude! You should have heard the enlightened and important Senator
Gates! He couldn’t be much cruder.”
“He has other assets. Don’t expect too much, Fliss.”
It was shortly after that that the Allenbys dined with Senator and Mrs.
Gates, and from that dinner several important invitations fell the way of
Fliss. It was, of course, not only on her own account. There were many
people who felt that it was very much worth while to cultivate young
Senator Allenby, and tipped their wives off to that effect.
Fliss began her campaign in December shortly after the opening of the
session. She was quite as busy weeding out undesirable invitations and
discouraging worthless acquaintances as she was angling for the right ones.
The thing that surprised her was to find out that the worthless acquaintances
included among their number so many people of superficial distinction, but
distinction, as she came to find out, that impressed no one except the people
on the street. One couldn’t go on the basis of clothes. The smart dressers too
often didn’t belong and some one whose suit might be last season’s and
whose hair was gray and worn without a Marcel might be a powerful or a
charming person—one to cultivate. Her old training in being “nice” to the
mothers of her high school friends stood her in good stead here. She knew
how to treat older women, what sort of flattery they preferred and what sort
of deference they exacted.
Always she watched for Matthew’s approval. She was interested in
seeing the way so many Washington women followed every step of their
husbands’ progress, and knew how to talk about it and how not to talk about
it. She was not informed enough to get much of a grasp of big happenings,
but she had an uncanny gift for getting at the pet phrases of people and
never blundered as she repeated them. Then, too, she did not talk much and
she read the newspapers for an hour every morning.
She was flowering, growing up, out of the little social climber she had
been into the woman of social strength that she meant to be. Brilliant,
colorful, utilitarian in every phase of her philosophy, except in that
weakness which showed again and again in her efforts to reach Matthew.
In February she gave her first dinner. It was a small dinner, the dozen
guests chosen with the utmost care and good taste. No one was there whom
she did not have the right to ask, no one who would not feel in easy
company with the rest of the guests, no one who was not a person of
distinction either personally or by connection. She had appealed quite
frankly to Mrs. Gates for advice, on the score of youth and not wishing to
appear presumptuous, and Mrs. Gates had given her exceptionally good
advice.
“Don’t try to do much, my dear. It’s apt to irritate people, especially at
the height of the season when people are crowded. All you have to do here
this year is to let people know that you are here. If you want to give a small
dinner, let’s see (she looked at her calendar), try the third week in
February.”
“It’s awfully good of you, Mrs. Gates, to help me. I feel so young and
sometimes rather stranded because, you see, I never had to go ahead alone
before. And after mother died, less than a year ago, I haven’t felt much like
going out or being gay. I miss her, sadly.”
What was the perfect intonation which gave Mrs. Gates the idea that
Fliss’s mother had been her social guidance until the hour of death? She
smiled at Fliss kindly, pretty Fliss who had modified her mourning so that
most people did not guess it was mourning and who stood before her now,
swathed in soft black furs. Her references to Fliss after that were of the kind
which helped immensely.
On the night of the little dinner Matthew looked at his wife in unmixed
admiration. She had come into the pretty drawing-room a little before him
and he found her there. To-night, too, she was dressed in black, black velvet
which clung gently to her hips and emphasized her girlishness, yet giving
her an air of dignity which he had never seen before. Her hair was changed
from its Carrington arrangement. The black bang which she had clung to so
long, because it was so becoming, had been sacrificed and her hair drawn
straight back, showing the perfect white forehead and making her face seem
more oval than before. The softest moon-white earrings and no other jewels
at all.
“You’re lovely, Fliss.”
 “I’m right,” answered Fliss, with assurance. “At least I’m right as far as
looks go. And the table is right. Come see it.”
She led him into the paneled dining-room, where the mahogany caught
the light from tall, unshaded wax tapers in their silver holders and the
electric candles on the wall. The center of the table was bright with
marigolds forced to a hothouse blossoming, setting off the silver and white
and crystal of the whole.
“Is it right? Does it look splendid? No, not splendid, but as if we’d been
giving dinners like this for years—as if our grandfathers had been doing it,
too? No Peachtree or Carrington flats in the background?”
He laughed at her.
“It’s so stunning, Fliss, that it almost makes me feel a bit guilty. We
mustn’t get so greedy for this sort of thing that we forget what I came down
here for.”
“You remember all that,” broke in Fliss, returning to the drawing-room.
“I’ll remember this part.”
Matthew listened to her as she stood greeting her guests with that little
air of dignified deference and again as she sat opposite him, but rather far
distant, listening, watching, always at work.
“Not many of your colleagues bring such young and beautiful women to
Washington as you did,” commented his neighbor on the left.
Matthew smiled appreciatively.
“My wife may be my greatest contribution to Washington.”
“We hear good things of you already,” said the lady, who was elderly and
kindly and had a fine Philadelphia manner. “But one of the best things we
can hear is to hear of such devotion. It is good to see a man in love with his
wife these days, Mr. Allenby.”
“Do you think it’s so rare?”
“I think we are creating an atmosphere in which it is harder to preserve
simple emotions. I want to know your wife better and find out how she
manages to be so skillful in so many things at such an early age.”
“Perhaps she won’t betray her secrets. But I will tell you a little. She
does it because she is untiring and loves fine and beautiful things so much
that she will do anything to obtain them.”
“You mustn’t make her seem so unscrupulous.”
 “Aren’t charming women supposed to be unscrupulous?” asked
Matthew, generalizing quickly.
“Women aren’t anything they are supposed to be. Less than ever just
now. They are an agglomerate mass of individuals, no one of whom and no
group of whom is strong enough to set the fashion for the rest of us. But
now that we vote and move more acceptedly in general circles we may
develop a new feminine type. Perhaps. We’ve tried to in the last fifty years.
We tried the bicycle riding type and the masculinized college woman and
the clubwoman type and the suffragist crusader and the newer college
woman who goes in for sociology and the job-holding woman who was a
war growth largely—I mean the woman who holds a job because she likes
work and not because she couldn’t marry out of it. Well, all those types are
experiments. They aren’t perfected types. The genuine old-fashioned
housewife—domestic, motherly——”
“Not all of the old-fashioned women were like that,” Matthew checked
her up amusedly.
“Put in your dash of courtesan, if you like, young man. That’s what you
mean. It didn’t alter the general type. Women were women, then. Now,
aside from physical similarities women are not women. You used to be able
to group them by something else than physical qualities. But you can’t any
more.”
“And what’s the answer?”
“Where did I start, and why did I start? My squab will be wrested from
me in a minute. Wait until I have a bite.”
“You started from unscrupulous women. I think your first remark was
that women aren’t anything they’re supposed to be.”
“Yes. Where I meant to end—and I can do it quickly—is to say that
nothing any one can say applies to women as a class, for women no longer
accept or believe in standards for themselves as a sex. They are creatures of
shifting standards—unhappy or happy as the mood may strike them. They
have no permanent standards.”
“No standards at all?”
“Oh, some of them cling to monogamy and some to fidelity, but is it
from belief and real vivifying faith or is it, as Mrs. Gerould says, because
they’ve been passed on the ethic? Is it because it’s more convenient to cling
to the old fashions in morality and marriage laws? I ask it as a question. Do
you know any women who would make a real sacrifice for the traditions of
marriage and wifehood? Who hold those states in really reverential
regard?”
Matthew was listening attentively.
“I know one woman who would,” he answered, “who would make
sacrifices for the old ideal. Who holds marriage in such high regard that she
can offer herself on its altar if she has to.”
His hearer looked down the length of the table at Fliss and smiled.
“You say that because you are in love with her,” she answered. “Well,
maybe you’re right. But it’s a queer age. I sometimes think we need a new
dictionary. My grandchildren—the youngest is ten and extremely
sophisticated—talk a different language from mine. It doesn’t matter
particularly.”
A queer look had come into Matthew’s eyes as the lady had assumed that
his remark was a tribute to his wife.
“I can’t make out whether you’re a feminist or not.”
“Neither can I,” she returned, laughingly.
It was a perfect dinner. For so young a hostess it was marvelously well
done. Matthew heard them compliment his wife, saw the elder ladies pet
her and the men give her those glances of admiration which she had been
used to for years. More than one man told him with unusual enthusiasm of
his delightful wife, and it was not the men alone who thought so. And
afterwards, as the last motor could be heard speeding away, Fliss turned to
her husband.
“I’ve got a lot to do—a lot to learn,” she said, “but I like it.”
“You’re a great success.”
“There’s such big stuff ahead,” she mused. “And I’m going after it,
Matthew. It gives me something to do. It’s the sort of thing I can do. There’s
a reason for all this society. I’m going to go up to the top and find out the
reason.”
“That’s the deepest thing you ever said,” said Matthew, lighting a final
cigarette. “It was a great success,” he repeated, and went on to his library to
work for a few hours. Fliss sat still, her eyes in the future as they had been
long ago on the night of the High School dance. Work, heights, a future—
still ahead.
 CHAPTER XXVIII

T HE town of Allenby had grown in the five years since the birth of
Dorothea Harrison in Mrs. Olson’s house. It had a hotel now, a moving
picture house, several emporiums, a Main Street, which was lit up by
night and offered a meeting and loafing place for the people who lived
there. The hotel was a square frame building, new, still fresh with paint,
with kalsomined walls and hardwood floors. It called itself the best hotel in
a hundred miles and was fairly accurate.
Dick lived there. It amused him at first, after the luxury of his home and
his club, to walk down the resounding, uncarpeted corridor to the room
which was his own with its golden oak bureau and white iron bedstead and
uncomfortable rocking chair. The chair was only used as a clothes rack
anyway, so it did not matter whether it was comfortable or uncomfortable.
The bed was clean and comfortable and he was always grateful for that. He
had made Allenby and the Allenby Hotel his headquarters because that
seemed the most natural thing to do, but he did not stay there all the time.
There were four or five small towns, most of them a little smaller, one
larger, which were also part of his business, for they had grown up around
the mines in which his company was interested, and he divided his time
more or less among them all.
He had found the position very difficult. He was taking no one’s place,
so the organizations of the mines did not know quite what to do with him.
The attitude of the superintendents at first had been to treat him as a visitor,
to “show” him things. When it came to them fully that he proposed making
an extended stay among them, there was suspicion of his purposes. The
undercurrent idea was at once that he was on some secret investigation, that
some one was “going to be fired.” They didn’t like it. The simple statement
which he made to them that the company had felt that a man on the ground
might help the unsatisfactory situation met great skepticism. For a couple of
weeks the relations were strained. But Dick made friends quickly, and what
was more, he made himself useful. All of every day he was busy, going
from one thing to another; talking to superintendents, foremen, men; sizing
things up; listening to complaints when he must, but never encouraging
them. He made no trouble, usurped no authority, did no meddling, with the
result that he very soon found things brought to him for consultation and
decision. Several grievances, small things in themselves, but which had
been moot and bitter points between the miners and their superiors, were
adjusted before they had developed so far that they made real trouble. And
other things happened. Dick had consultations with some of the grocers and
dealers in fuel in the towns and a certain amount of exploitation ceased as
Dick pointed out that rival stores which could easily be started might put
them out of business. He found out no more than the skilled investigator
would have found out after a few days’ survey. But the difference between
Dick’s work and that of a professional investigator was that Dick did
something about it. He was not only investigating and observing, but he
had, in a large measure, power to act and the brains to proceed.
These small successes gave him no illusions any more than his small
failures confused his mind. He knew that the great dissatisfactions would
not be solved by even model conditions, and model conditions were
impossible to get. But he worked along and even garnered unexpected
praise from that hard-thinking group of men who had allowed him
permission to try his experiment.
It was a very simple life. All day at the mines, absorbed in study of
practical things, varied perhaps in some way by a discussion with some of
the foremen or some of the men themselves. He was amazed to find how
hard every one was thinking. Nearly every man he met had some idea that
changes were needed in mind, state or nation. He heard wise comments
often as well as ridiculous ones, but he found no common basis for all the
comments—nothing to build upon—no standard which they all would
follow. He puzzled about it somewhat. At the end of the day, in the short
evenings, he thought of these things, sometimes sitting in the unkempt
lobby of the hotel, sometimes walking swiftly in the cold night. And as he
walked he would see lights come out from the windows of the little houses
and shadows pass the windows, and he would be very lonely. More lonely
than he had been in Carrington, for he felt closer to these houses and yet
shut out from them. He had the sense of men behind the windows, with
their families—men basically like himself, women fundamentally like
Cecily. And as he walked he often wondered, too, what it was that had
parted him and Cecily again on that Christmas morning, why they could not
have been happy together. Sometimes it seemed so cruelly abnormal to him
that he was tempted to go to her again. Things looked simpler here in this
little streetcarless, snow covered, hard driven town. Men were husbands and
women were wives, and mental quibbles were of such little consequence. In
these clear moments of normality it was amazing to him that he and Cecily
had ever quarreled. She, the beautiful, loyal mother of his children; he, her
husband, devoted to his children and loving Cecily so deeply. And yet there
it was. In some way they had torn their marriage into shreds. Because she
did not want him to like the things, the people, the amusements which she
did not like; because she had rated him cheap and held herself dear; because
she had insisted on her standards for both of them.
Trivialities, no doubt of it. They had thrown away vital things for
trivialities. They’d won their points. He might go where he liked, amuse
himself as he liked, live by his own standards. And where was he? A man
without a home, without a family; and yet always with the precious sense of
that family, his even though he was not with it. And she—he could imagine
her sitting quietly in that long living-room of hers, with her book—alone.
Or was she? Matthew had said it could not go on that way; that some man
was bound to disturb Cecily. Cecily’s husband put that thought from his
mind with distaste.
He came to the conclusion that they must have been living in a queer
atmosphere, to let themselves be ruined by such mental abnormalities. No
standards. Or was that the root of the trouble—Cecily’s standards? Cecily’s
standards which had seemed when he married her to be so wonderfully
beautiful and which had become so irritating, so inflexible, so rigid. They
had set her apart from so many people. She had preserved them at such
great cost.
Now, with the jazz fever out of his blood, with the cold air on his cheeks,
Dick could see how he might have taught Cecily tolerance. She had learned
many other things. But it was too late now for that. They had hurt each
other too cruelly. Humiliated each other; and he had added a cruel touch of
further humiliation on Christmas. At the thought of Christmas Dick always
stopped thinking. He couldn’t bear to go on with the picture of himself that
he imagined Cecily saw of him, sneaking home on a holiday, a sentimental,
desirous, quarrelsome brute.
In a kind of debauch of lonesomeness, he used to think of other things
about Cecily—of the way she used to tuck the little baby under her chin like
a fiddle—of the way she looked with her hair spread out on her pillow. But
it rested him. He would look back and remember little things which had
seemed of no consequence, but now were comforting and sweet. She had
loved him. He must persuade her to let him do something for the boys—
settle something on her.
Then he would go to bed and get up to an immense day’s work.
In late February he ran in to Carrington for a week to straighten out
things at the office and fight out some matters which weren’t being given
the attention he wanted them to have. He was going back to the mines for
another couple of months.
“I want to see the situation through the winter. Next winter I’ll know
better how to go about things up there, even if it must be done at longer
range.”
“Going to establish the millennium?” asked one of the directors, trying
to “kid” Dick a bit.
Dick gave him a queer look.
“There’s no millennium coming for a damned long time yet,” he
answered. “But we may save a lot of money and, what’s more, a lot of skins
by finding out just what is going on up there.”
They praised his work in giving him greater leeway and full power to do
what he thought best in dismissals and appointments.
He met Walter at lunch and asked after Della.
“Not too well,” said Walter, “but that’s part of it, I suppose.”
“Hurrah for you,” said Dick, “I didn’t know about it.”
“It makes a man feel helpless, doesn’t it?” asked Walter.
Dick nodded.
“Cecily has been a wonder to Della. She’s seen a lot of her and sort of
bolstered her up.”
“Cecily?”
“Della turned to her more than to any one else. She was a little panicky,
you know.”
“Cecily could help her out a lot,” said Dick shortly, and was on his way.
He had one other encounter. He had come in to Carrington just at this
time because he had known that Matthew was on for three days from
Washington. He had not known that seeing Matthew meant dining with
Fliss at the hotel. But it did.
 She was looking as pretty as ever, even somehow prettier, and she had a
better manner. Still in apparent mourning, she would not dance, but she
regaled Dick with tales of Washington which kept them all amused, and
Dick enjoyed her as he had not enjoyed anybody since his break with
Cecily. She spoke of that when Matthew had gone to find her coat and get a
taxi. She was going to pay some calls while Dick and Matthew talked
business.
“How is Cecily?” she asked Dick, the corner of her eyes lifted toward
him.
“I don’t know.”
“You aren’t living there?”
“No.”
“Don’t stiffen, Dick. I don’t mean to pry. I’m really sorry.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re a fool, Dick.”
“Which way?”
“Trying to get along without her. You can’t. Nobody seems to be able to.
Here’s your little sister-in-law adoring her. Here’s Matthew much the same.
Here’s you, the same, though she irritates you a little just as she does me. I
confess I’m exempt. I don’t adore. But I never did fall for the good wife and
mother type.”
“Change the subject, Fliss.”
“No, I won’t, Dick. I’ll say my say. I’ll say that you and your good wife
ought to get together—if only for that blessed Dorothea’s sake. I suppose
Cecily wouldn’t let me have Dorothea? I helped bring her into the world.
Well, maybe I can send her an anonymous present once in a while. Dick,
did you ever like me?”
“I wonder just how much,” teased Dick.
“Cecily and I have always been jealous of each other, you know. I
suppose that when we are old and gray and wear caps (only I mean to
Marcel mine to the end), that we will still be jealous of the parts of our
husbands’ minds we haven’t got. Cecily has a lot of Matthew’s (the best
part of it, too) and I have a tiny scrap of yours which she begrudges me. But
she can’t have it, Dick. I cling to it. She can have most of you, but I want
the tiny scrap of you that wants brighter color than Cecily will give you. So
there!”
She finished with her old impudent smile.
“Foolish woman!” he said.
“Foolish nothing. I’m a working woman these days with no time for
foolishness. I’m storming Washington society. And as Matthew goes up and
up I shall trail along after him. Just talking of you, darling,” she finished as
Matthew came in sight.
Dick spent a few dutiful days with his mother, repressing her efforts to
repeat to him the gossip about his affairs and just as definitely refusing to
hear or talk ill of Cecily. Mrs. Harrison wanted him to make some effort to
get Dorothea for her. But he refused.
“Dorothea is better with her mother.”
“You never know. Cecily will probably get some notion to put the child
into a convent.”
“Nonsense, mother.”
But he had to hold himself rather sternly in check as he found himself
trying to keep away from his old house. He had a very definite ache for the
children. He wanted just to see them, but he really couldn’t hang around
street corners, he told himself. Finally, on the day he left, he telephoned the
house. It was relief when Ellen answered. He had decided to hang up if it
was Cecily’s voice.
“It’s Mr. Harrison, Ellen. No, I didn’t want to speak to Mrs. Harrison.
It’s all right that she’s out. I’m leaving town in a few minutes and I was
wondering if you could bring Dorothea down to the train. And Leslie? It
isn’t far. Mrs. Harrison has the baby with her? Then, if you could—fine,
fine, fine. I’ll send you home in a taxi. Can’t I send a taxi for you? All right,
in half an hour, then.”
He was trembling when he saw the children come down the platform,
Dorothea so competent now, Leslie tumbling along like a small brown bear.
Such wonderful children! He had not had time for toys, but he had raided a
confectioner’s.
“Are you going away again, daddy?”
“I must, dear. I have work to do. You must be a good girl and mind
mother.”
 “I do.”
“Mrs. Harrison well, Ellen?”
“Yes, Mr. Harrison. I’m sure she’ll be sorry you can’t come for dinner.”
“Trying to keep us respectable, Ellen?” Dick chuckled, but his laughter
was a little husky.
“Better come out with us,” urged Ellen with unusual boldness.
Dick shrank instinctively.
“Wouldn’t do—wouldn’t do at all. Too bad, Ellen, but it’s too late for
that. Remember what you promised; let me know if Mrs. Harrison ever
needs me. Good-by, Leslie, old chunk; good-by, Dorothea, my darling.”
Ellen took them off reluctantly and Dick jumped on his train—a train of
daycoaches, perambulated by boys with “popcorn, chewing gum and
candy.” He felt like a tramp, and sitting slouched up beside his window,
pulled his cap over his eyes. Homeless. What did it matter if he was rich
and equipped with power? He was homeless. A wave of bitterness towards
his wife swept over him. There were Walter and his Della, waiting for their
child; Fliss with her Matthew; Cecily and he—separated.
“I must work,” he told himself. “I must work like hell.”
That was what he did, what he had to do. He was hardly back in Allenby
before trouble broke out. The long winter had worn on every one. Nerves
which could not be sent to Florida for rehabilitation were none the less
shattered in dirty-faced miners and their stolid seeming wives. Professional
agitators; a long list of impossible demands; poor whiskey obtained from
the blind pigs; an official firing an unwary shot; other angry shots; the old
story of the strike and its outcome. Dick toiled night and day now, using
every ounce of influence he had gained, doing the things which must be
done in every strike; trying to keep sparks from the inflammable bitterness,
fighting, losing, winning a little, seeing privation and trouble face to face as
he had never seen it.
It took him out of his own trouble, but while the men in Carrington
congratulated themselves on their foresight in having “Harrison on the job
up there,” Dick changed rather visibly. His step did not have so much spring
and the youth which he had carried so blithely in his face until this age of
thirty-seven seemed quite gone.
 CHAPTER XXIX

C ECILY was home when Ellen brought the children back from the train.
“Where have you all been?” she asked, pulling Leslie’s cap off and
patting the rosy, wind-blown cheeks.
Ellen looked at her squarely.
“Mr. Harrison telephoned that he was leaving town and would like to see
the children. So I took them down to the train.”
A flush came over Cecily’s face.
“You took them to the train without my permission?”
“Their father telephoned me that he would like me to,” answered Ellen,
continuing to take off Dorothea’s wraps in the utmost calmness.
There was something in Ellen’s assumption which it was impossible to
circumvent. There was no answer. He was their father; he had asked to see
them; she had no right to prevent it; the thoughts skimmed through Cecily’s
mind, disturbed as she was. She said nothing further. Dorothea was full of
embarrassing comments on her father that Cecily did not want to hear, but it
was impossible to divert her. For several days Dorothea was determined to
talk of her father and could not be thrown off the track. It seemed to Cecily
that it would be outrageous to forbid her such talk, but she did not like it.
She had come to see the difficulties of continuing in her present relations
with Dick. It could hardly go on. Some arrangement would have to be made
to clear up the vagueness of the situation. She was disagreeably conscious
of the lurking feeling among her relatives that Dick and she would “make it
up,” and that, she felt angrily, made her position intolerably cheap. It wasn’t
a thing which could be “made up.” In those moments when she did toss
over in her restless mind the possibilities of living with Dick again, the
thought of the smiles of people over the “reconciliation” was intensely
irritating. Della had tried to urge her to take some step to see Dick, but
gentle as she was with Della these days, Cecily would not allow her to go
on.
Yet she was learning from Della. Learning the strangest things from
Della’s pragmatic little soul. Walter was always asking her to come to see
them, to join them here and there and it was so good to be wanted that
Cecily saw the young Warners often. At first the demonstrations of
affection she used to witness bothered her, shamed her delicacies. But she
grew used to them and quite tolerant. One couldn’t do away with Dellas.
Why shouldn’t she kiss her husband in public if she liked? What difference
did it make? They cared for each other and when Della would pout and
grow angry and Walter get angry in return, Cecily grew used to seeing
them, for no reason at all, give up the quarrel in favor of a caress. No long
silences, no quiet bitternesses. No one made his point in these little quarrels,
but what did that matter either? They weren’t points worth making.
Cecily had noted through the papers the return of Fliss for those few
days. It had been evidently quite a social triumph. The entertaining for her
had been very quiet in deference to Fliss’s mourning. Cecily heard that with
a quick, ironic memory of the day she had visited Fliss’s mother.
Once she spoke of Fliss to Ellen.
“Your cousin has become very important.”
“She was always a hard worker,” returned Ellen.
Cecily looked at her skeptically.
“Oh, yes, in her way. She’s really a very hard worker. Of course she likes
things pretty and gay, but I will say this for her. She was always willing to
work for what she got. And she knew what she wanted from the time she
was a little thing.”
But Cecily felt no tolerance there—no tolerance towards Fliss. Fliss was
to her the waste of the world—the corruption of the times—with whom
there must be no truce.
Her money affairs were still in a bad way. There had been expensive
house repairing; there had been clothes for the children and Cecily could
not bear to put them into cheaper things than they had been accustomed to
wear. The fact that money which she would not use had been put to her
credit made the situation half-ridiculous. She was conscious of looking a
little ridiculous. As the standards for marriage which she had held so
sacredly grew a little less rigid because of her friendliness with Della, she
used to wonder more and more why she had let things matter so much
between herself and Dick. So many things might have been passed over.
“But I wouldn’t like to live like Della,” she’d tell herself. “It’s all right for
Della to squabble and caress; our marriage was different.” And back again
she would come to the old point that Dick had preferred casual amusements
to her, that he had not been willing to concede that hers was the highest
way. Though she might concede some things she was still sure of one fact:
that hers was the highest way. It wasn’t, she would tell herself in these
intense mental discussions, that she wanted Dick to stay in every night, that
she didn’t want him to dance—to play. She only wanted him to stand with
her mentally on a height of marriage to which they had attained at least in
those early days; she didn’t want their union to mix on a common basis with
these haphazard marriages of passion, of convenience, marriages of
deliberate childlessness—which she saw around her. How he was to express
his mental agreement with her she didn’t know; how he could have
expressed it she could dream; but she knew that he never could feel or
express it now. For they had put themselves in the quarreling class. Even if
they lived together again they could not get the perfection they had missed.
Resentment would be casting shadows between them for a while and, when
resentment died at last, with it would die some delicacies, some memories.
When the memories of these months of bitterness and separation faded,
were they together or apart, some capacities for feeling would have faded,
too.
And yet the bond remained between them. After she had proved to
herself that living with Dick now would be an admission of failure, her
mental house of cards always tumbled. During the night she would waken
and be looking into blackness, clearly conscious that her marriage was as
alluring and commanding as ever, facing simple, elemental lonelinesses and
desires. Rightness and wrongness of the issues did not matter much in these
moments; in so far as they did it occurred to her that her little unbending
scrupulosities about standards cut shabby figures besides unscrupulous,
unprejudiced love. Even if he had been faithless—even if there had been
another woman whom he loved—even then the bond would have remained.
It was cemented in her soul by her memories—in her outer life by her
children.
She was almost ready for her half-loaf.
Matthew wrote to her in March. He had not seen her when he was in
Carrington and wrote to tell her why—a dangerously frank letter for a
Senator.
“I thought it best not to come because I did not want to mix issues. What
I wanted to say to you as I thought of going to you was to urge you to return
to Dick—to have him return to you. But perhaps what I might say if I came
into your presence would not be that. So I write instead, for as I write I can
think of you simply. I have thought often of you and Dick. You are both
very dear to me. In the curious quadrangle of our lives there have been
strange attractions. But accidents of place have almost destroyed the
quadrangle and I think it should end in a real understanding between you
and Dick. You can’t love anybody but Dick, Cecily, and you can love him
much more if you watch him more, if you see that under a certain natural
mannishness there is a spirit that probes into things as does yours. I don’t
think you will ever regret going back to Dick—I speak of it as going back,
but I mean going to him—but I know that you will shrivel and waste your
life if you do not.
“You have made heights real to us. Don’t make it hard for Dick because
he can’t live on them. Live on the plains where most of the work of the
world is done, live with the people who do it—and watch the heights from
your window.
“I am sending you my love and I am proud as I do it.”

Cecily read his letter on a windy day in early March. She put it into the
pocket of her coat and went out for a walk. As she passed the convent the
open gates seemed to beckon to her. She went in and stealing down the
corridor to the chapel door, sat as she had sat years ago on the ledge of the
window opposite the statue of the Virgin. She remembered how frightened
and allured she had been by the talk about marriage. “An institution for the
establishment of a home and the bringing up of children.” That, her heart
cried out; yes, that, but so much more, so infinitely much more. A shrine for
the love of man and woman—a shrine which she had somehow desecrated!
Her thoughts tormented her. Hither and thither they tossed her. She
turned towards the door of the convent and asked for Mother Fénelon.
Mother Fénelon took her hands from under her black robe and placed them
on Cecily’s shoulders.
“Still in trouble, Cecily?”
Cecily nodded.
“Are you living with your husband?”
She shook her head.
“Go to him, my dear——”
“Don’t,” cried Cecily. “Don’t, please.”
 It was late afternoon but she did not go home. She walked to the park
and sat on a bench and felt like an outcast as the evening shadows fell
around her. It grew darker and people went past her going home—carrying
bundles, hurrying. Motors slipped by carrying other people home. What
was home? She didn’t have one. She and Dick didn’t have one. They were
kept apart by shadows, kept apart because they couldn’t get close enough. It
grew colder. She looked at her watch. The children would have had their
supper. She should go home. But she felt as if she must do something
definite first. Still she was not quite sure what it was that she must do.
At last she rose unsteadily and made her way to a corner drugstore. It
was deserted at the supper hour. Cecily saw her face as she looked across
the counter into the glass, reddened with wind, streaked with tears (she
hadn’t been conscious of crying) and her hat was askew. She asked the clerk
for change and went into the telephone booth.
“I shan’t be home for supper, Ellen—nor all night. I’m going to Allenby.
Can you manage?”
The other call was to get Dick’s exact address.
It was eleven o’clock when she toiled up from the station to the hotel,
and it took more courage than she had known she had left to face the clerk
and ask for Mr. Allenby’s room.
The clerk looked very dubious.
“I’m Mrs. Allenby,” said Cecily, pushing a card across at him. “I’ll go
right up. Evidently,” she lied, “he didn’t get my telegram.”
“Very well, Mrs. Allenby,” said the clerk, still with a trace of
dubiousness in his manner.
What had Cecily the immaculate, the fastidious, come to, to be toiling up
these noisy stairs at eleven o’clock at night in search of her husband?
Baggageless, shrinking from the curious looks of the few lounge loafers.
If she could only have crept in in the darkness. But she must knock and a
woman at the other end of the hall was turning to look. Dick was hard to
rouse.
“Let me in,” said Cecily, hoarsely. She did not know her own voice.
Nor did he. She could hear him lighting the gas, coming to the door,
opening it.
She fairly pushed him aside so that she could get in.