id of it.
I am not the one to take that ground. It might do for you--"

"Well, then, let it do for me!" I confess that I was astonished at this
turn, or should have been, if I could be astonished at any turn a woman
takes. "I will see her for you, if you wish, and I will tell her just
how it is with you, and then she can decide for herself. You have
certainly no right to decide for her, whether she will see you or not,
have you?"

"No," Tedham admitted.

"Well, then, sit down and listen."

He sat down, and my wife reasoned it all out with him. She convinced me,
perfectly, so that what Tedham proposed to do seemed not only
sentimental and foolish, but unnatural and impious. I confess that I
admired her casuistry, and gave it my full support. She was a woman who,
in the small affairs of the tastes and the nerves and the prejudices
could be as illogical as the best of her sex, but with a question large
enough to engage the hereditary powers of her New England nature she
showed herself a dialectician worthy of her Puritan ancestry.

Tedham rose when she had made an end; and when we both expected him to
agree with her and obey her, he said, "Very likely you are right. I once
saw it all that way myself, but I don't see it so now, and I can't do
it. Perhaps we shouldn't care for each other; at any rate, it's too much
to risk, and I can't do it. Good-by." He began sidling toward the door.

I would have detained him, but my wife made me a sign not to interfere.
"But surely, Mr. Tedham," she pleaded, "you are going to leave some word
for her--or for Mrs. Hasketh to give her?"

"No," he answered, "I don't think I will. If I don't appear, then she
won't see me, and that will be all there is of it."

"Yes, but Mrs. Hasketh will probably tell her that you have asked about
her, and will prepare her for your coming, and then if you don't come--"

"What time is it, March?" Tedham asked.

I took out my watch. "It's nine o'clock." I was surprised to find it no
later.

"I can get over to Somerville before ten, can't I? I'll go and tell Mrs.
Hasketh I am not coming."

We could not prevent his getting away, by force, and we had used all the
arguments we could have hoped to detain him with. As he opened the door
to go out into the night, "But, Tedham!" I called to him, "if anything
happens, where are we to find you, hear of you?"

He hesitated. "I will let you know. Well, good-night."

"I suppose this isn't the end, Isabel,"