"Good God!" gasped Norval, forgetting his wife’s hatred of profanity. Katherine reached for the book and held it to her hurt heart. "You are selfish, you are an egotist, Jim. Your talent, your freedom to develop it have made you callous, brutal. There are more ways of killing a woman than to—beat her. Now that I am sure I have a sacred spark that must be kept alive, I shall demand my rights; freedom equal to your own!" "Of course, Kit, if you’ve gone in for this sort of thing, we’ll have to shift our bases a little. I know that." "Jim, we’re not fitted for each other!" The sob rose triumphant and because in his soul Norval knew that she spoke the truth, he was furious and ready to fight. "Rot!" he cried. "Now see here, Kit, don’t get the temperament bug; there’s nothing in it! You can do your job and yet keep clean and safe; do it best by playing the game honest. Good God! I haven’t smutted up my life along with my canvas, you don’t have to. It’s the fashion, thank the Lord, to be decent, although gifted. Your book has run you down, old girl. Let’s cut and forget it!" The indignation of the narrow, weak, and stubborn swayed Katherine Norval. "Jim," she said, gulping and holding desperately to "The Awakened Soul," "I think we should be—be—divorced." "Punk!" Norval snapped his fingers. "Unless you’ve given cause, there isn’t any." "I—I cannot live under present conditions, Jim." "All right, we’ll get a new set." "You are making fun and I am deadly in earnest." "You mean you want to chuck me?" Norval frowned, but something was steadying him. "I mean that I must live my life." "Of course, Katherine, this all sounds as mad as a March hare, and it’s August, you know. Why, we couldn’t get free if we wanted to, we’re too decent." "But you’re not happy, Jim." "Well, who is, all the time?" "And, Jim, you do your best work when you are leaving me horribly alone. I’ve noticed." This was another hideous truth and it stung. "I’ve done my best, Kit," he said lamely. "And it hasn’t worked, Jim. I will not stand in your way. Though I die, I will do my duty, now I seek!" "Don’t, Kit, for heaven’s sake, don’t." "I mean every word that I say. I will not submit longer to being—being eliminated. I must have reality of some kind. Jim, you don’t fit into home life. Our baby died. You can forget me, and I have had to forget you. I want my freedom." For a full moment they stared helplessly over the chasm that for years had been widening without their knowing it. They could not touch each other now, reach as they might. "I—why—I’m stunned," said Norval. "I alone have seen it coming," Katherine went on. "If my staying made you happier, better, I would stay even now; but it does not, Jim." And Norval continued to stare. "I feel I am doing you and—and your Art a great service by letting you go." Katherine looked the supreme martyr. "On what grounds?" mumbled Jim, "’An Awakened Soul’?" This was most unfortunate.