"Listen, dear, I want you to see it as I see it. I know that you will, that you do. I should never be able to forgive myself if I stayed away now, I--neither of us could ever be happy about it. You do see, don't you?" she implored. "Yes," I admitted agitatedly. Her grasp on my hand tightened. "I knew you would. But it makes me happier to hear you say it." We sat for a moment in helpless silence, gazing at one another. Slowly her eyes had filled. "Have you heard anything more?" I managed to ask. She drew a telegram from her bag, as though the movement were a relief. "This is from the doctor in Boston--his name is Magruder. They have got Ham there, it seems. A horse kicked him in the head, after he fell,--he had just recovered consciousness." I took the telegram. The wordy seemed meaningless, all save those of the last sentence. "The situation is serious, but by no means hopeless." Nancy had not spoken of that. The ignorant cruelty of its convention! The man must have known what Hambleton Durrett was! Nancy read my thoughts, and took the paper from my hand. "Hugh, dear, if it's hard for you, try to understand that it's terrible for me to think that he has any claim at all. I realize now, as I never did before, how wicked it was in me to marry him. I hate him, I can't bear the thought of going near him." She fell into wild weeping. I tried to comfort her, who could not comfort myself; I don't remember my inadequate words. We were overwhelmed, obliterated by the sense of calamity.... It was she who checked herself at last by an effort that was almost hysterical. "I mustn't yield to it!" she said. "It's time to leave and the train goes at six. No, you mustn't come to the station, Hugh--I don't think I could stand it. I'll send you a telegram." She rose. "You must go now--you must." "You'll come back to me?" I demanded thickly, as I held her. "Hugh, I am yours, now and always. How can you doubt it?" At last I released her, when she had begged me again. And I found myself a little later walking past the familiar, empty houses of those streets....