onsense--this talk of divorce! Why," he came so near, and
spoke in so menacing a tone, that Julia perforce lifted her eyes to his,
"this situation isn't all of my making," he said. "I've not been
ungenerous to you! Can't you be generous in your turn, and talk the
whole thing over reasonably?"

"I can't see the advantage of _talking_!" Julia answered in faint
impatience.

"No, because you want it your own way," said Jim. "You expect me to give
up my child completely, you refuse me even a hearing, you won't discuss
it!"

"But what do you want to discuss?" protested Julia. "The whole situation
is perfectly clear--we shall only quarrel!"

How well she knew the look he gave her, the hurt look of one whose
sentiment is dashed by cool reason! He suddenly caught her by the
shoulders.

"Look here, Julia!"

"Ah, Jim, please don't!" She twisted in a vain attempt to escape his
grip.

"Please don't what?"

"Don't--touch me!"

Jim dropped his hands at once, stepped back, with a look of one mortally
hurt.

"Certainly not--I beg your pardon!" he said punctiliously. He took up
his hat. "When do I see you again, Julia? Will you dine with me
to-morrow? Then we can talk."

"No, I don't think so," Julia said, after reflection.

"Have you another engagement?"

"Certainly not!" There was almost a flash of amusement in her face; her
glance toward the kitchen spoke volumes for the nature of her
engagements.

"Why do you say no, then?" asked Jim.

"Because I prefer not to do so," Julia answered, with sudden spirit. "We
look at this thing very differently, Jim," she added roundly. "To me it
is a tragedy--the saddest thing that ever happened in my life; that you
and I should have loved each other, and should be less than nothing to
each other now! It's like a sorrow, something shameful, to hide and to
forget. For years I was haunted by the horror of a divorce, Jim; I never
wrote to you, I never begged you to come back, just because I was afraid
of it! I used to say to myself in the first awful weeks in this house:
'Never mind--it isn't as if we were divorced; we may be separated, we
may be estranged, but we are still man and wife!'" Tears came to Julia's
eyes, she shook her head as if to shake them away. "I've hungered for
you, Jim, until it seemed as if I must go mad!" she went on, looking far
beyond him now, and speaking in a low, rapt voice as if to herself.
"I've felt," she said, "as if I'd die for just one more kiss from