plexy one
day about six weeks after you left. I didn't mention it in my letters
because I didn't want--I thought--"

"Well, the other people would have kept on, then. They'd have--"

"I don't know," said Fanny, still averting her troubled eyes. "Things
are so changed here, George. The other people you speak of--one hardly
knows what's become of them. Of course not a great many were doing the
talking, and they--well, some of them are dead, and some might as well
be--you never see them any more--and the rest, whoever they were, are
probably so mixed in with the crowds of new people that seem never even
to have heard of us--and I'm sure we certainly never heard of them--and
people seem to forget things so soon--they seem to forget anything. You
can't imagine how things have changed here!"

George gulped painfully before he could speak. "You--you mean to sit
there and tell me that if I'd just let things go on--Oh!" He swung away,
walking the floor again. "I tell you I did the only right thing! If
you don't think so, why in the name of heaven can't you say what else
I should have done? It's easy enough to criticize, but the person who
criticizes a man ought at least to tell him what else he should have
done! You think I was wrong!"

"I'm not saying so," she said.

"You did at the time!" he cried. "You said enough then, I think! Well,
what have you to say now, if you're so sure I was wrong?"

"Nothing, George."

"It's only because you're afraid to!" he said, and he went on with a
sudden bitter divination: "You're reproaching yourself with what you had
to do with all that; and you're trying to make up for it by doing and
saying what you think mother would want you to, and you think I couldn't
stand it if I got to thinking I might have done differently. Oh, I know!
That's exactly what's in your mind: you do think I was wrong! So does
Uncle George. I challenged him about it the other day, and he answered
just as you're answering--evaded, and tried to be gentler. I don't care
to be handled with gloves! I tell you I was right, and I don't need any
coddling by people that think I wasn't! And I suppose you believe I was
wrong not to let Morgan see her that last night when he came here, and
she--she was dying. If you do, why in the name of God did you come and
ask me? You could have taken him in! She did want to see him. She--"

Miss Fanny looked startled. "You think--"

"She told me so!" And the tortured young man choked.