come."

"Well then--"

"Perhaps it's the wind," Helen said. "You're very good to me."

"Oh, I'm fond of you," Lily said.

"Are you fond enough to kiss me?" Helen asked. She wanted a touch at
which she need not shudder, and surely it was fitting that some one
should kiss her on her wedding-day.

CHAPTER XXX

Soon after nine o'clock, Helen bade Mildred Caniper and the nurse
good-night and went downstairs with Jim close at her heels.

"We're going to sit in the kitchen, James. I'll get my sewing."

She hesitated at the window: the night was very dark, but she could see
the violent swaying of the poplars, and she thought the thickening of
their twigs was plain and, though it was April already, it was going to
snow. She touched the tassel of the blind, but she did not pull on it,
for she would not anger George with little things, and she left the
window bare for his eyes and the night's.

"Keep close to me, Jim," she said as she sat and sewed, and she stroked
him with a foot. She could hear no sound but the raging wind, and when
the back door was opened she was startled.

"It's me," George said as he entered.

"I didn't hear you coming."

"I've been looking through the window for a long time." He went to the
fireside. "Didn't you know? I hoped you'd be looking out for me, but you
weren't anxious enough for that."

"Anxious?"

"Well--eager."

"Of course I wasn't. Why should I be?"

"You're my wife--and wives--"

"You know why I married you, George."

"You're married, none the less."

"I'm not disputing that."

"I suppose you despise me for--getting what I wanted."

"I only wonder if it was worth while."

"I'll make it that."

"But you won't know until your life is over, until lots of lives are
over."

"I'll get what I can now."

She nodded lightly, and her coolness warmed him.

"Helen--"

"Why don't you sit down?"

"I don't know. I wish you wouldn't sew."

Without a word, she folded her work and gave it to him, and when he had
put it down he knelt beside her, holding the arms of the chair so that
he fenced her in.

"You don't understand, you can't understand that night's work," he said.
"I want to tell you. You--you were like an angel coming down into the
racket. You took away my strength. I wanted you. I forgot about Miriam.
If I'd only known it, I'd been forgetting her every day when I saw you
walking with the dog. You think I was just a beast, but I tell you--"

"I don't