d would have to stay home with him. For three days after, he made no
sign to Melanctha. He was very sick all these days, and his heart
was very heavy in him, and he knew very well that now at last he had
learned what it was to have deep feeling.

At last one day he got a letter from Melanctha. "I certainly don't
rightly understand what you are doing now to me Jeff Campbell," wrote
Melanctha Herbert. "I certainly don't rightly understand Jeff Campbell
why you ain't all these days been near me, but I certainly do suppose
it's just another one of the queer kind of ways you have to be good,
and repenting of yourself all of a sudden. I certainly don't say to
you Jeff Campbell I admire very much the way you take to be good Jeff
Campbell. I am sorry Dr. Campbell, but I certainly am afraid I
can't stand it no more from you the way you have been just acting. I
certainly can't stand it any more the way you act when you have been
as if you thought I was always good enough for anybody to have with
them, and then you act as if I was a bad one and you always just
despise me. I certainly am afraid Dr. Campbell I can't stand it any
more like that. I certainly can't stand it any more the way you are
always changing. I certainly am afraid Dr. Campbell you ain't man
enough to deserve to have anybody care so much to be always with you.
I certainly am awful afraid Dr. Campbell I don't ever any more want
to really see you. Good-by Dr. Campbell I wish you always to be real
happy."

Jeff Campbell sat in his room, very quiet, a long time, after he got
through reading this letter. He sat very still and first he was very
angry. As if he, too, did not know very badly what it was to suffer
keenly. As if he had not been very strong to stay with Melanctha when
he never knew what it was that she really wanted. He knew he was very
right to be angry, he knew he really had not been a coward. He knew
Melanctha had done many things it was very hard for him to forgive
her. He knew very well he had done his best to be kind, and to
trust her, and to be loyal to her, and now;--and then Jeff suddenly
remembered how one night Melanctha had been so strong to suffer, and
he felt come back to him the sweetness in her, and then Jeff knew that
really, he always forgave her, and that really, it all was that he was
so sorry he had hurt her, and he wanted to go straight away and be a
comfort to her. Jeff knew very well, that what Jane Harden had told
him about Melanct