"It seems so, but while life remains she might. She loved me, Jim. The woman I loved in her died when our child came but I cannot forget. I’m a fool, but when I’ve been most tempted the thought has always come: how could I go on living if she _did_ recover and found that I had deserted her?" "You’re worn to the edge, Andy, better chuck the whole thing and come off for a vacation with me. But first look at this, tell me what you think." Law’s face relaxed. He shifted his burden to where it belonged, and walked over to the easel. "Umph!" he said, and stepped to the right and to the left, his head tilted, his eyes screwed up. "Another, eh?" "Yes." "Jim, what in thunder ails you to let a woman play the devil with you?" "You ask that, Andy?" "Yes. Our cases are quite different, Helen’s dead, but Katherine knows damned well what she is doing." "She doesn’t, Andy. In one way she’s as dead as Helen, she hasn’t waked up." "And you think she will? You think the time will come when she can see your genius and get her little carcass out of the way?" "Hold up, Andy! I came to have you criticise my picture, not my wife." But Law did not pay any attention. "She ought to leave you alone, if she cannot understand. No human being has a right to twist another one out of shape." Norval retreated; but he was too distraught to refuse any haven for his perplexity. "After all," he said, "there’s no more reason for my having my life than for Katherine having hers. She wanted a husband and we were married. If I had known that I couldn’t be—a husband, I might have saved the day, but I didn’t, Law, I didn’t. Getting married seemed part of the game, nearly everyone does get married. And then, well, the trouble began. There are certain obligations that go with being a husband. Katherine has never exacted more than her due only——" "Only, her husband happened to be a genius and Katherine doesn’t know a genius when she sees one. From the best intentions she’s driving you to hell, Jim." "Oh! well, I may be able to get the best of it, Andy, and paint even if I do keep to the well-trodden paths of husbands. A fellow can’t call himself a genius to his own wife, you know, especially when he hasn’t proved it. One hates to be an ass. You see, Andy, when all’s said and done, I can wring a thing or two out. This is good, isn’t it?" The two men looked at the picture. "It’s devilish good, but it has been wrung out! Jim, it’s no use. The home-loving, society-trotting, movie-show husband role will be the end of you." "Well, if I slam my studio door in Katherine’s face and leave her to go about alone, or sit by herself, that would be the end of her. Andy, the worst of it is that when she puts it up to me, I see she’s right. We’re married and she only wants her share." "I suppose this meant," Law was gravely contemplating the picture, "nights of prowling and days when you felt as if you’d kill any one who spoke to you?"