"It's rather surprising. But I guess it can wait. It's waited a good
many years."
And after standing by her side and looking down on her dumb, colorless
face a while longer, he left the room.
Archie, who was clearly mystified by his wife's brief statement,
concluded to regard it all as an aberration, an effort on her part to
express fantastically her sense of obligation to the stone mason who had
risked his life to save the child. He was concerned to have Adelle moved
to a more comfortable place and told her that friends were coming to
take her to their home. She made a dissenting gesture without opening
her eyes. She wished to be left alone, entirely alone, here in the
orangery whither she had taken her dead child the night before. Archie,
seeing that he could not persuade her immediately to leave the cheerless
spot, spoke of other things. He was voluble about the cause of the fire,
hinting at a dire "anarchistic" plot of some discharged workingmen.
There was much talk in their neighborhood at this time of the efforts of
"anarchists" to destroy rich people's property by incendiary fires.
Adelle, with her face turned to the wall, moaned,--
"Go away!"
And at last Archie went.