He stood looking at her, stupefied, as she went on, simply. IV "John, married folks oughtn't to be apart too much. They sort of get weaned from each other. Grace was too ambitious. She'd got, here, what she thought her husband couldn't get, what she'd come to think she had to have. I might have told her better, but I wasn't here. Not that I'm reproving you, John, not at all. Besides, we have all got to go, some day. But I loved her.... And the baby." "So did I love her, and the baby," he began. Tears were in his eyes. "Laura, I have had nothing but trouble. And now you have come here--" "Yes, I know; it must seem a little queer to you, John; so I'm going right away again, to-night--before morning, if there's any way I can get down-town." "Yes, yes!" "--Because, I know if I was seen around here, and people found out who I am, who I--was--there might be some sort of talk which would be hard for you, John. I reckon you have trouble enough without that. I didn't want to bother you. I came mostly because of Grace. But--John, I always did like to tell the truth, and I have got to tell it now--I came a little, too, because of you!" "Of me? Why Laura!" "Yes, I did. I read the papers, of course, all the time. I have known about you, although you haven't heard of me. You have moved up in the world, John, and as for me--well, I have just gone back to Kelly Row, where we used to live. Of course, I'm glad you have been lucky. But then, lately, the papers all began to say you were in trouble. I've read all kinds of things about you. I heard you were ruined--that you hadn't a dollar left in all the world!" "It's true," he growled; "as near as I know, it's true. There is no hope for me now. It's all up!" "But, John, you had so _much_ money!" "Yes, but it's gone now. It doesn't take it long to go when it starts the other way. The market makes a man, and it breaks him just as quick, and a lot quicker. It's done me, Laura. I'm ruined. I haven't a thing left in the world; not even my wife. Have you come here to twit me with it? What do I owe _you_, that I have to listen to you?" "Why, nothing, John, that's true; nothing at all, not in the least. I have no right here at all, I know that. I understood _that_, when I--when--I went away from here. But that wasn't why I came back to-night." "Then why _did_ you come? You always had the faculty, Laura, of doing the wrong thing. You've been a curse to me all my life!" "Some of that's true, John," she answered simply, "and a good deal of it isn't. Maybe I said the wrong thing sometimes, or did the wrong thing. I never had much training. I was meant for Kelly Row, I reckon--I'd never have fitted in here. We tried it! But I didn't come to glorify myself because you've lost this place, and everything you had. I just thought--" "Well, Laura, what was it that you just thought? I can't stand here talking all the time. It isn't right, it isn't proper. I'm worn out!"