ore, that some women
are strong enough morally, brave enough physically to do anything,
make any sacrifice for the sake of right. How unworthy he had proved
himself of such a woman! What respect could she have left for him,
what respect had he left for himself?

And as the days went by without word from her and the full realization
of what he had lost slowly came to him, he thought he would go mad
from anxiety and remorse. He did not know where she had gone and his
pride prevented him from communicating with her sister. James Gillie
had handed in a haughty resignation the day following Virginia's
departure, so there was no way of learning anything from that source,
and the detective he had employed had thus far discovered nothing. She
might be in difficulties, in actual want and would not ask assistance
from sheer pride. The thought was maddening and for days Stafford,
distraught, unable to attend to his affairs, remained in the house,
hoping, half expecting, she would return until the uncertainty and
continual disappointment nearly drove him insane. He could not eat; he
could not sleep. His ears still rang with her reproaches, her stinging
words of bitter denunciation. At night he would wake up suddenly in a
cold sweat imagining he saw her standing at the bed, looking at him
with her large, sorrowful eyes, full of tears and reproach.

If he had never been sure of it before, he knew now that he loved her.
Everything in the house, now she was gone, told him so. As he wandered
aimlessly through the deserted rooms, and his glance fell on the
corners and objects with which she was associated--the deep easy chair
in the library in which she would bury herself for hours with an
interesting book; her baby grand piano, still open with the sheets of
music scattered about; her private chamber with the bed undisturbed,
closets empty, furniture arranged in precise order, and already
beginning to accumulate dust--he realized for the first time all that
she had been to him. He had not married young like most men. She had
come into his life when his habits and opinions were already formed.
For that reason he had treated his wife like a child, to be petted and
indulged, but who at no time must be permitted to assert her
independence or interfere in any way with her husband's mode of
living. But little by little, even without his being conscious of it,
she had taken a larger place in his life. Gradually, she had made
herself necessary