.

"I can set him free."

ii

That was the end she had seen before her, vaguely, as something not only
hard and terrible, but beautiful and supreme. To leave off clinging to
the illusion of her happiness. To let go. And with that letting go she
was aware that an obscure horror had been hanging over her for three
days and three nights and was now gone. She stood free of herself, in a
great light and peace, so that presently when Jerrold came to her she
met him with an incomparable tranquillity.

"Jerrold--"

The slight throbbing of her voice startled him coming out of her
stillness.

They stood up, facing each other, in attitudes that had no permanence,
as if what must pass between them now would be sudden and soon over.

"Do you care for Anne?"

The words dropped clear through her stillness, vibrating. His eyes went
from her, evading the issue. Her voice came with a sharper stress.

"I _must_ know. _Do_ you care for her?"

"Yes."

"And that's why she's going?"

"Yes. That's why she's going. Did Eliot say anything?"

"No. He only told me to ask you. He said you'd tell me the truth."

"I have told you the truth. I'm sorry, Maisie."

"I know you're sorry. So am I."

"But, you see, it isn't as if I'd begun after I married you. I've cared
for her all my life."

"Then why didn't you marry her?"

"Because, first of all, I didn't know I cared. And afterwards I thought
she cared for Colin."

"You never asked her?"

"No. I thought--I thought they were lovers."

"You thought that of her?"

"Well, yes. I thought it would be just like her to give everything. I
knew if she cared enough she'd stick at nothing. She wouldn't do it for
herself."

"That was--when?"

"The time I came home on leave three years ago."

"The time you married me. Why did you marry me, if you didn't care for
me?"

"I would have cared for you if I hadn't cared for her."

"But, when you cared for her----?"

"I thought we should find something in it. I wanted you to be happy.
More than anything I wanted you to be happy. I thought I'd be killed in
my next action and that nothing would matter."

"That you wouldn't have to keep it up?"

"Oh, I'd have kept it up all right if Anne hadn't been there. I cared
enough for you to want you to be happy. I wanted you to have a child.
You'd have liked that. That would have made you happy."

"Poor Jerrold----"

"I'd have been all right if I hadn't seen Anne again."

"When did you s