king of my
going away."

"Very."

Not even a comment. Oh, why didn't he say that he would be glad to have
her gone, and be done with it! Anything, almost, would be easier to bear
than this total lack of interest. She tried another tack.

"Have you any--any objection?"

"I guess it wouldn't make a powerful lot of difference to you if I had."
He could actually smile, his good-natured, indulgent smile, which she
knew so well.

"What makes you think that?"

"Oh, I guess you only stayed on here because you had to."

Nora's work dropped in her lap.

"Is life always like that?" she said with bitter sadness. "The things
you've wanted so dreadfully seem only to bring you pain when they come."

He gave her a swift glance, but went on smoking quietly. She went over
to the window again and stood looking out at the stretch of prairie.
Presently she spoke in a low voice, but her words were addressed as much
to herself as to him:

"Month after month, this winter, I used to sit here looking out at the
prairie. Sometimes I wanted to scream at the top of my voice. I felt
that I must break that awful silence or go mad. There were times when
the shack was like a prison. I thought I should never escape. I was
hemmed in by the snow and the cold and the stillness; cut off from
everything and everybody, from all that had been the world I knew."

"Are you going to quit right now with Ed?" he asked gently.

Nora went slowly back to her chair. "You seem in a great hurry to be rid
of me," she said, with the flicker of a smile.

"Well, I guess we ain't made a great success of our married life, my
girl." He went over to the stove to knock the ashes from his pipe. "It's
rum, when you come to figure it out," he said, when it was once more
lighted; "I thought I could make you do everything I wanted, just
because I was bigger and stronger. It sure did look like I held a
straight flush. And you beat me."

"I?" said Nora in astonishment.

"Why, sure. You don't mean to say you didn't know _that_?"

"I don't know at all what you mean."

"I guess I was pretty ignorant about women," his began pacing up and
down the floor as he talked. "I guess I didn't know how strong a woman
could be. You was always givin' way; you done everything I told you.
And, all the time, you was keeping something back from me that I
couldn't get at. Whenever I thought I was goin' to put my hand on
you--zip! You was away again. I guess I found I'd only caught hold