to a wry frown. "Haven't we all at times wanted the world put

back?" he grunted, and looked hard and close at one particular nail.

There was a long pause.

"I want her," I said, "andI'm going to have her.I'm too tired for

balancing the right or wrong of it any more. You can't separate

them. Isaw her yesterday… She's-ill… I'd take her

now, if death were just outside the door waiting for us."

"Torture?"

Ithought. "Yes."

"For her?"

"There isn't," I said.

"If there was?"

I made no answer.

"It's blind Want. And there's nothing ever been put into you to

stand against it. What are you going to do with therest of your

lives?"

"No end of things."

"Nothing."

"I don't believe you are right," I said. "I believe we can save

something-"

Britten shook his head. "Some scraps of salvage won't excuse you,"

he said.

His indignation rose. "In the middle of life!" he said. "No man

has a right to take his hand from the plough!"

He leant forward on his desk and opened an argumentative palm. "You

know, Remington," he said, "and Iknow, that if this could be fended

off for six months-if you could be clapped in prison, or got out of

the way somehow,-until this marriage was all over and settled down

for a year, say-youknow then you two could meet, curious,happy,

as friends. Saved! You KNOW it."

I turned and stared at him. "You're wrong, Britten," I said. "And

does it matter if we could?"

I found that in talking to him I could frame the apologetics I had

not been able to find formyselfalone.

"Iam certain of one thing, Britten. It is our duty not to hush up

this scandal."

He raised his eyebrows. Iperceived now the element of absurdity in

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