its hideous envenomed horned head, and into
which betimes it might withdraw.

I can imagine no one so stupid as to question any serious statement of
fact that Lucy might make. Her eyes were wells of truth; her voice
fearless and sure, like that of some kingly boy.

So when she said there was _no one_, Fulton, who knew her far better
than anyone else, believed her without any question. And a great
weight must have been lifted from his heart. With the truth that he
had wrung from her, I think he must have rested almost content for a
few hours.

But contentment is far off from a man who hears the great edifice of
love and happiness which he has reared, crashing about his ears.

He could not make up his mind to any definite course of action. Now,
calm and judicial, I hear him discussing matters with coolness, and
self-forgetfulness.

"If there is any chance for me, ever," he would say, "it would be silly
of us to take any action which would be final. And, besides, I don't
see how I could reconcile my conscience to giving you a divorce. Or
you yours to getting one. It would be hard enough for you to lie about
the most trifling thing. You couldn't, you simply couldn't face the
court and tell them that I had been cruel and unfaithful. You couldn't
accuse me of anything so gross, and so unlike me, as the other woman
who would have to be hired for the occasion. There's another side to
it. I think the children are better off with you than with me. You're
the best mother that ever was, the most sensible and the most careful.
But I don't think I could give them up. If you and the babies were all
three to drop out of my life, I'd have nothing left but the duty of
finding money to support you. There's a certain pleasure in doing your
duty, of course, but in this case hardly enough. Honestly, dear, with
never a sight or touch of you, I simply couldn't keep things going
long."

Then perhaps Lucy asked some such question as this: "Don't people
often, when they've stopped caring about each other, go on living
together just the same, as far as other people know? And really just
be good friends and live their own lives?"

"This is very different. We haven't stopped caring about each other.
You've stopped caring about me. I care about you, just as I did in the
beginning, and always shall. We _couldn't_ lead separate lives under
the same roof. God knows I feel old enough, but I'm still a young man,
and like it or