know?

Yet he went on, though not just as he had planned.

"So you do think it bad luck? Don't you ever want to go back, Shirley?"

"That's foolish. Of course I do. But--but the debts aren't paid yet."

"Pretty nearly. If we're careful we can clean them up quickly now."

"But it seems so foolish--and so unnecessary. We could wait a little
longer. The salary is so small at best. How--how should we live?"

"Very simply, I fear. But," he added, in the same even, repressed
tone, "always within our means, I'm sure. We'll go to a boarding-house
first and then look around for an apartment we can afford. We'll be
starting over again, Shirley."

"But--" She was still stammering. "But it's been so good for Davy
here. And the weather's still warm--"

"That's only an excuse, I think. And it's a risk he'll have to take.
It's better than--than some other risks."

"What other risks? Since we've waited so long, what difference would a
few weeks more make?"

She did not guess what a temptation she was putting before him. It
would be so easy to make this a fork in the road from which he and she
should take different ways forever, in the end leaving him free, and at
little cost to her! But he fought that thought sternly.

"Shirley, can't you see what has happened to us? We've been drifting
apart. We're very far apart now. You don't really want to come back
at all. And I--I could easily say, 'Then don't come.' I'm capable of
that just now. And you wouldn't really care."

"How can you say such a thing? Of course, I would care. I don't
understand--"

"You wouldn't care or you would have come of your own accord. Shirley,
I came here to coax you. I can't, now I see how little it all means to
you. But-- You've mentioned Davy. We've got to think of him." He
looked down at the child playing between them. "I want the boy,
Shirley--and I want you with him."

There was an edge to his voice that she had never heard.

"But I wouldn't think of leaving him. I--I was going back-- When?"

"As soon as I can find temporary quarters for us."

"You say--I _must_?"

"I don't say that. I say only, if you are coming at all, come while I
want you."

They faced each other in silence, the pretty, pleasure-loving young
woman to whom life had been only a house of toys, and the rather seedy
young man who had been one of the toys. The bond that held them was a
slight one; a little more strain and it would have