"For once, only once, I want to speak out plainly! You are younger than I, my friend,--not so much in years as in other things. Enough, so that I can look at you as--a friend. You understand?" She spoke gently, with a little smile, as if, after all, all this must be taken between us for a joke. "From the beginning, when you and Sarah first came into our lives, I saw the kind of man you were, and I admired you. I wanted to help you--yes, to help you." "And that you did!" "Not really. Perhaps no one could really help you. No one helps or hinders. You work out your fate from the inside, like all the powerful ones. You do what is in you to do, and never question. But I longed for the woman's satisfaction of being something to you,--of holding the sponge, as the boys say. But a mere woman, poor, weak creature, is tied with a short rope--do you know what that means? So the next best thing, if one can't live one's self, is to live in another--some strong one. When you are a woman and have reached my age, you know that you can't live for yourself. That chance has gone." "I don't believe it," I protested. "You are just ready to live." She gave me a smile for my compliment, and shook her head. "No, I don't deceive myself. Most women do. I know when I have reached the end of my chapter.... So I have followed you, step by step--oh, you don't know how closely! And I have sucked in all the joy of your success, of your power, of you--a man! I have lived a man's life." "But you went away?" I said accusingly. "Yes, I went away--because that would help! It was the only thing I could do--I could go away." For the first time her voice shook with passion. I was answered. "Now I have come back to find that my hands are tied more than ever. I can help you no more. Believe me, that is the hardest thing yet. I can help you no more! My husband--you understand? No, you need not understand. A woman is bound back and across by a thousand threads, which do not always show to the eye.... I may yet keep my husband from throwing you over, but that is no matter--the truth is I count no longer to you. If the world had been other than it is, my friend, I should have been by your side, fighting it out daily for you, with you. As it is--"