Halleck struck the arms of his chair with his clinched hands. “Confound the fellow! What business has he to come back into my way, and make me think about his wife? Oh, very likely it's quite as you say! I dare say she's stupidly content with him; that she's forgiven it and forgotten all about it. Probably she's told him how I behaved, and they've laughed me over together. But does that make it any easier to bear?” “It ought,” said Atherton. “What did the husband do when you met them?” “Everything but tip me the wink,--everything but say, in so many words, 'You see I've made it all right with her: don't you wish you knew--how?'” Halleck dropped his head, with a wrathful groan. “I fancy,” said Atherton, thoughtfully, “that, if we really knew how, it would surprise us. Married life is as much a mystery to us outsiders as the life to come, almost. The ordinary motives don't seem to count; it's the realm of unreason. If a man only makes his wife suffer enough, she finds out that she loves him so much she _must_ forgive him. And then there's a great deal in their being bound. They can't live together in enmity, and they must live together. I dare say the offence had merely worn itself out between them.” “Oh, I dare say,” Halleck assented, wearily. “That isn't my idea of marriage, though.” “It's not mine, either,” returned Atherton. “The question is whether it isn't often the fact in regard to such people's marriages.” “Then they are so many hells,” cried Halleck, “where self-respect perishes with resentment, and the husband and wife are enslaved to each other. They ought to be broken up!” “I don't think so,” said Atherton, soberly. “The sort of men and women that marriage enslaves would be vastly more wretched and mischievous if they were set free. I believe that the hell people make for themselves isn't at all a bad place for them. It's the best place for them.” “Oh, I know your doctrine,” said Halleck, rising. “It's horrible! How a man with any kindness in his heart can harbor such a cold-blooded philosophy _I_ don't understand. I wish you joy of it. Good night,” he added, gloomily, taking his hat from the table. “It serves me right for coming to you with a matter that I ought to have been man enough to keep to myself.” Atherton followed him toward the door. “It won't do you any harm to consider your perplexity in the light of my philosophy. An unhappy marriage isn't the only hell, nor the worst.” Halleck turned. “What could be a worse hell than marriage without love?” he demanded, fiercely. “Love without marriage,” said Atherton. Halleck looked sharply at his friend. Then he shrugged his shoulders as he turned again and swung out of the door. “You're too esoteric for me. It's quite time I was gone.”