I said I didn't care, and he _believed_ it, just as simply as if I'd
told him the time. Oh, dear! the blindness of men."

"And the strangeness of women!" Vanna looked at her with her tender,
whimsical smile. "You believed it yourself at the time, dear girl. I
can imagine how eloquent you would be. No wonder poor Robert was
convinced. I was overcome with admiration for you that first week, but
being a woman, I knew that the reaction must come. That's inevitable;
but you must live up to yourself, Jean; you've created a precedent by
being magnificently brave, and you must keep it up."

"I--_can't_!" said Jean, and the tears rolled down her cheeks. "That
night I could think of nothing but Rob--his poor face! I would have cut
off my hand to make him smile, but my home--my home! To have to break
it up! My home where we came after we were married, where the babies
were born... It breaks my heart to leave it, and to give up all my
treasures that I collected with such joy... And Robert doesn't see, he
doesn't know--that seems hardest of all. If he just realised--"

"He would suffer again! Is _that_ what you want?"

Jean cast a startled glance, and sat silent, considering the problem.
Her eyes were circled by dark violet stains, as from long wakeful
nights; there were hollows at her temples which the cloudy hair could
not altogether conceal.

"It sounded rather like it," she said slowly at last, "but _no_! indeed
I don't--I love him far too much. But just sympathetic a little,
Vanna--and _appreciative_ of my loss! Yesterday when we stood in that
little back dining-room if he had said to me: `it's awfully hard on you,
darling, but it's only for a time: put up with it for a time!' I should
have hugged him, and felt a heroine. But he looked out on that awful
backyard, and said serenely, `oh, it doesn't matter about views! You
never cared about looking out of windows,' and went on calmly planning
where we could put a sideboard. And I wanted to scream! He doesn't
_understand_, Vanna. He doesn't understand--"

"Men don't, dear! It's no use expecting more than they can give. They
pull a wry face, accept a situation, and say no more about it. It would
seem to them contemptible to go on grizzling. It's a fine attitude--
much finer than ours; and if you look upon it in the right light,
Robert's unconsciousness is a great compliment. He simply gives you
credit for being as good as your word, as he is himsel