"Does a woman ever learn to understand a man? She gives him her life; yet to the end----They begin differently.... He has known everything before he comes to her, and she has known nothing. She's told that it doesn't matter, that it's right. She doesn't believe it in her heart --the more she loves him, the less she believes it--but she tries to persuade herself she believes it. It's wrong--wrong! To him she's a new girl, and to her _he_ is a new world. How can marriage be the same thing to both. You didn't love her, but you gave yourself to her. Could a husband think less of his wife's sin for a reason like that?" Kent rose, and stood beside her dumbly. Some glimmer of her point of view reached him and confused him by its strangeness. "I'll do whatever you want. What can I say?" "Help me to forget," she said in a low voice. "Will you help me to forget?" "You'll let me come to you?" "Give me a few days--wait a few days. Only I can't be your wife again, Humphrey, all at once--I can't.... Ah, don't think me unforgiving; it isn't that. Come to me, if you will, and work, and we'll be good friends together. Don't be afraid, I won't make it bad for you, I promise--I'll never remind you even by a look.... Are the terms too hard?" "You're merciful." The seconds crept away. "I must go," she said; "I'll write to you." "Shall you go to your mother's?" "I must; there's no train to Monmouth after three. Will you send for a cab to take me to Waterloo? I'll tell them you were coming with me, but something prevented you.... Can I bathe my eyes in your room before I go?" Kent showed her where it was, and waited for her in the parlour. Then they went downstairs together to the cab. She leant forward and gave him her hand. "Don't be afraid of me," she whispered again. "God bless you!" he said, closing the door. CHAPTER XXIV Cynthia wrote to him to go to her. The day was bright, and a promise of spring was in the air as he journeyed down. Some of its brightness seemed to tinge his mood, and he was conscious of a vague wonder at the pleasurable emotions that stirred him as fields and hedgerows shot past. She was on the platform awaiting him, though he had not telegraphed the time of his arrival. He saw her at once, and was momentarily a prey to misgivings. Her welcoming smile as they advanced towards each other dissipated his dread. But it revived his embarrassment, and his embarrassment appeared to her pitiable. "I knew," she said frankly, "that you would come by this train." She gave orders to a porter about the luggage, and Kent passed into Monmouth by her side. He heard that her brother had come down to see her, and was at the cottage now. Cæsar was having a holiday, and had been spending a fortnight with his parents. "He was going back this evening, but I made him stay till to-morrow. Mrs. Evans found him a room a few doors off."