n't wait. You knew I couldn't. You knew I'd
come to-night."

The added years had had their effect on him; possibly, too, there had
been growing up in him the strength of a long patience. He was not an
heroic type of man; but noting the sudden wrinkles in his face and the
firmness of his mouth, Amelia conceived a swift respect for him which
she had never felt in the days of their youth.

"Am I goin' to stay," he asked sternly, "or shall I go home?"

As if in dramatic accord with his words, the bells jangled loudly at the
gate. Should he go or stay?

"I suppose," said Amelia faintly, "you're goin' to stay."

Laurie laid down his cap, and pulled off his coat. He looked about
impatiently, and then, moving toward the nail by the door, he lifted the
coat to place it over that other one hanging there. Amelia had watched
him absently, thinking only, with a hungry anticipation, how much she
had needed him; but as the garment touched her husband's, the real woman
burst through the husk of her outer self, and came to life with an
intensity that was pain. She sprang forward.

"No! no!" she cried, the words ringing wildly in her own ears. "No! no!
don't you hang it there! Don't you! don't you!" She swept him aside, and
laid her hands upon the old patched garment on the nail. It was as if
they blessed it, and as if they defended it also. Her eyes burned with
the horror of witnessing some irrevocable deed.

Laurie stepped back in pure surprise. "No, of course not," said he.
"I'll put it on a chair. Why, what's the matter, Milly? I guess you're
nervous. Come back to the fire. Here, sit down where you were, and let's
talk."

The cat, roused by a commotion which was insulting to her egotism,
jumped down from the cushion, stretched into a fine curve, and made a
silhouette of herself in a corner of the hearth. Amelia, a little
ashamed, and not very well understanding what it was all about, came
back, with shaking limbs, and dropped upon the settle, striving now to
remember the conventionalities of saner living. Laurie was a kind man.
At this moment, he thought only of reassuring her. He drew forward the
chair left vacant by the cat, and beat up the cushion.

"There," said he, "I'll take this, and we'll talk."

Amelia recovered herself with a spring. She came up straight and tall, a
concluded resolution in every muscle. She laid a hand upon his arm.

"Don't you sit there!" said she. "Don't you!"

"Why, Amelia!" he ejaculated,