y anybody but old fogies and back numbers, and people
who have lived the kind of life Lucretia has, possesses a clear sense
of right and wrong. It has gone out."

"What became of Desire's married happiness, Mary? I thought there was
so much of it, and that it was of a durable variety."

"Oh, it leaked away through small cracks, as happiness usually does.
It is hard to explain to a man, but if Arnold were a woman, you might
almost say that he nagged. He is too detailed, too exact, for Desire.
If, for instance, she said in May, I believe I will have a green
cloth, embroidered, for a fall suit, about the first of November, you
{88} might expect Arnold to remark, I don't see that green cloth suit
you said you were going to have. What made you change your mind?
Desire delights to say things she does n't mean and lay plans she does
n't expect to carry out, so a constant repetition of such incidents
was really pretty wearing. I have seen her when she reminded me of a
captive balloon in a high wind.

"A woman in your position ought not to make unconsidered speeches was
one of his pet remarks. He is scientific, she is temperamental--and
each of them expected the other one to be born again, and born
different by virtue of mutual affection and requirements. Arnold will
go on wondering to the end of his life why Desire can't be more
accurate, more purposeful. As if he did n't fall in love with her the
{89} way she is! And then along comes the Westerner--"

"Where did they meet?"

"Bessie Fleming introduced them--at some silly place like Atlantic
City. It was after Desire had that nervous breakdown two years ago. I
know they were both in wheeled chairs at the time, and they rode up
and down together, talking, like long-separated twin souls, about the
theory of aesthetics and kindred matters. They did n't require
diagrams to see each other's jokes, and that is always a strong tie.
He was a man used to getting what he wanted, and when he became
bewitched--can't you see how it would all work together? I know
Lucretia thinks there is no excuse for Desire. But I see this excuse
for her. None of us ever trained her to know she could n't have
everything she wanted. Of course, we never {90} expected her to want
anything but the finest, the highest. But she is human, and when she
found a most wonderful thing in her path that she wanted more than she
had ever wanted anything before--she put out her hand to take it, as
she had taken othe