hell about your position, your
end of it?"

"My position is not so bad as it was. I have something definite to
face now. But much as I appreciate your impulsive good will, I don't
think that your sympathy is a thing which I care to accept. Lucy, of
course, feels that her fancy for you is a more imperative call than her
duty to her children and me."

"You've been in love, John."

"I _am_ in love. I think we had better not discuss our several powers
of loving."

He rose from the bench and began to stroll up and down in front of it.

"I haven't," he said, "given this contingency any thought whatever.
You and Lucy will have to possess your souls in patience for a time.
It is all very sudden. But supposing for a moment that I should
consent to a divorce. Are you able to support a wife?"

"I have no money of my own," I said, "but my father, as you know, has
oceans of it, and gives me a very handsome income."

"And yet he might not care to support you above the ruins of a home.
In that eventuality what could you do? Lucy is very extravagant."

"I could work my hands to the bone for her."

Fulton looked curiously at his own lean, nervous hands, smiled faintly,
and said: "Yes, and then be chucked aside like a worn-out garment.
Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And now you'll be
anxious to see Lucy, and report. Tell her that I swallowed the pill
without making too much of a face. Tell her that I seemed inclined to
be reasonable. Tell her also with my compliments that she must
continue to exercise self-restraint and patience. Things are bad
enough. If they were any worse I could not answer the consequences."

"All right, John. Thank you for taking it so calmly."

"Oh, I'm not calm inside. Don't worry about that."

I left him there--standing very straight in the garden path, his face
the color of granite, and of the stillness.

XXVII

"What did he say?"

Her face was brilliant with excitement and anxiety. And I told her as
well as I could.

"He was preternaturally calm and easy," I said; "I couldn't imagine a
man being more well-bred about anything. But he won't say anything
definite now. Of course, he ought to have time to think. We could
have counted on that, if we'd thought. He will take plenty of time to
make up his mind, and then he won't change it. But Lord, I'm glad he
knows now; and from us."

There was a quiet knocking on the half-open door of the living-roo