"Yes, Edith, I do say it. If I've broken the letter of the contract, you
may be transgressing its spirit. Don't forget that. Take care. What I
did, I did because I couldn't help it. You _can_ help it--"
"Oh no, I can't. That's where you haven't understood me. You say I don't
see things from your point of view, and perhaps I don't. But neither do
you see them from mine. You wonder why I don't go over there"--she
nodded toward the house--"where I had my home--where my children have
theirs--where you and I ... But I can't. That's all I can say. I may do
it some day; I don't know. But just now--I couldn't drag myself up the
steps. It would mean that we were going on as before, when all
that--that sort of thing--seems to me so--so utterly over."
"You'll feel differently when you've had time to think."
"Perhaps I shall. And time to think is all I'm asking. You understand
that, don't you? that I'm not making anything definite--yet. If I can
ever come back to you, I will. But if I can't--"
"Hello, mama! Hello, papa!" The elder boy galloped up. "We've seen the
monkeys. And one great big monkey looked like--"
"Allô, maman! Allô, papa! N's avons vu les singes--mais des drôles!
Il y en avait un qui--"
The children caught their father round the knees. Stooping, he put his
arms about them, urging them toward their mother. They were to plead for
him--to be his advocates.
"Tell mama," he whispered to the older boy, "not to go to Aunt Emily's
to-night. Tell her we can't do without her--that we want her at home."
He turned to the younger. "Dis à maman que tu vas pleurer si elle te
quitte ce soir--qu'il faut qu'elle vienne t'écouler dire la prière."
But, when he raised himself, Edith was already walking swiftly up the
Avenue. He would have followed her, only that the children seemed to
restrain him, clinging to his knees. All he could do was to watch
her--watch her while the thronging crowds and the shimmering sun-shot
dust of the golden afternoon blotted her from his sight--and the great
city-world out of which he had received her took her back.