"Do you advocate our not talking at all?" "Oh, no. About opinions, ideas, facts, by all means let us have an exchange--not personal history--soul deliveries--they take away all the mysteries." "I suppose that is why I feel sometimes that I am married to you, but that you live in Mars." "Poor Jerry! Would you like a babbling, cozy, confiding little wife?" "I don't know that I'm quite up to the mysteries, Jane." "Would you like to end our experiment, Jerry?" she said quickly. "No; of course not. What put such an idea into your head?" "I'm quite sure that I do not give you all you want, in our union." "Oh, yes, you do, Jane," he said soothingly. "I give you all you asked for when we married, but no one stands still; new demands grow subconsciously. So it has been with us." "You mean I don't give you what you want?" he inquired. "No." "You want to end it?" "No." "What then?" "If we have the intelligence to realize the situation, we must be able to meet it." "But how?" "I don't know yet. We must both consider it deeply." With this, she closed the interview, and he felt as baffled as when he began it. He went on with his study of her. She filled his mind. In the nursery she was a happy, twittering, foolish mother, adoring her baby. With him she was now a gay, bantering companion, now a dweller in Mars, with no apparent connection with the earth. With Christiansen she was a sexless challenge, calling to his mind with hers. Bobs transformed her into an affectionate big sister, interested in the doings of all the studio friends. He no sooner collected the data of one rôle, than she assumed another. Yet with all those ties, she kept an independent aloofness. Jerry felt that, any day, she might tie baby to her back and go forth, leaving them all, without a look behind. He decided that this was the secret of her fascination for them. The more he thought about her, the more he wanted to know about those unaccountable mornings, what she did, where she spent her freedom. He decided to strike, in his position as assistant nurse, to see if that thwarted her sufficiently to bring a protest. He, therefore, announced that business would take him out of the studio in the early mornings for a week. "Too bad to spoil your outings," he added. "Oh, it won't. I'll arrange somehow." "Those sacred mornings of yours cannot be interfered with, can they?" "No." "Why don't you invite me to walk with you some morning?" "It's more important that you should look after baby." "Thanks." "After all, you've never shown any uncontrollable desire to walk with me. Before baby came you always walked alone."