--as months go; but why should it have been less long,
whether for months or days? I had to cure myself of a wound."

"To put a plaster on a scratch, Frank."

"And the sooner a man can do that the more manly he is. Is it a sign
of strength to wail under a sorrow that cannot be cured,--or of truth
to perpetuate the appearance of a woe?"

"Has it been an appearance with me?"

"I am speaking of myself now. I am driven to speak of myself by the
bitterness of your words. It was you who decided."

"You accepted my decision easily."

"Because it was based not only on my unfitness for such a marriage,
but on yours. When I saw that there would be perhaps some years of
misery for you, of course I accepted your decision. The sweetness had
been very sweet to me."

"Oh Frank, was it ever sweet to you?"

"And the triumph of it had been very great. I had been assured of the
love of her who among all the high ones of the world seemed to me to
be the highest. Then came your decision. Do you really believe that
I could abandon the sweetness, that I could be robbed of my triumph,
that I could think I could never again be allowed to put my arm round
your waist, never again to feel your cheek close to mine, that I
should lose all that had seemed left to me among the gods, without
feeling it?"

"Frank, Frank!" she said, rising to her feet, and stretching out her
hands as though she were going to give him back all these joys.

"Of course I felt it. I did not then know what was before me." When
he said this she sank back immediately upon her seat. "I was wretched
enough. I had lost a limb and could not walk; my eyes, and must
always hereafter be blind; my fitness to be among men, and must
always hereafter be secluded. It is so that a man is stricken down
when some terrible trouble comes upon him. But it is given to him to
retrick his beams."

"You have retricked yours."

"Yes;--and the strong man will show his strength by doing it quickly.
Mabel, I sorrowed for myself greatly when that word was spoken,
partly because I thought that your love could so easily be taken from
me. And, since I have found that it has not been so, I have sorrowed
for you also. But I do not blame myself, and--and I will not submit
to have blame even from you." She stared him in the face as he said
this. "A man should never submit to blame."

"But if he has deserved it?"

"Who is to be the judge? But why should we contest this? You do not
really wish