tical of facts. Only I am apt to forget it, and then, when
it meets me unawares, it is as grim as death."

She nodded, watching him intently as if he were physically ill: she
would not let the oars strike on the water, lest the noise might jar on
him. All kinds of wild plans for helping him filled her brain. If the
trouble were anything which money could help, there was plenty of that,
thank God! If it was political difficulty--bills maybe--she could not
even understand it. If God had only not made her so stupid! the humble
tears rising slowly to her eyes.

Mr. Neckart did not see them. He was careful not to look at her as he
spoke, and hurried on with his explanation, as if it were business of
small importance. But she was not deceived by that. "I never have talked
of this matter, and least of all should I have told it to you. I can
bear the trouble when it comes without difficulty. The most ordinary men
meet disaster coolly which they know is inevitable. Commonplace fellows
who are born with scrofula or consumption march along with them to early
death cheerfully. They make no tragedy out of it. There is no reason why
I should complain of my lifelong companion." His tone was harder than he
had ever used in speaking to Jane before.

"I have never told you of my mother?"

"No," eagerly, hastening to spare him pain. "But I have heard of her
from Cornelia Fleming, who was your neighbor in Delaware. I know all
that she suffered. You need not tell me."

"She was the last of the Davidge family. There was not one of them for
generations who had not inherited disease of the brain. They were either
epileptics from youth, or became, as she did, incurably insane. The
disease invariably manifested itself in that way after middle age, and
from that time they were helpless burdens to their children. Yet there
was not a Davidge who refrained from marriage, so entailing the curse
on another generation. It would have been more righteous to have put a
pistol to their heads and have blown out their brains."

His manner was quiet and cold. Jane made no answer.

"Naturally, I have studied the pathology of insanity closely. I know
that I have inherited the disease. The symptoms within the last six
months are unmistakable. I know that in five or ten years at the outside
I shall be of no more use in the world than any other mindless animal.
But I will have no woman, nor child, suffer for me."

When he ceased to speak the silence and th