s to rivet her attention, asking:

"What do you mean?"

She looked at him, and knowledge came to her, born of a swift
intuition raised by his obvious difficulties. In a flash she knew; but
even while she knew, she didn't care; it was lamentable, how dead she
was.

"Oh," she hesitated, a faint smile crossing her lips, "I mean nothing.
Please don't suppose I wish to make your private affairs mine."

So great was his want that she should feel, should ask and demand him
to give up his secrets, that he was impelled to declare:

"Marie, if you were to ask me, I'd tell you everything about this last
year. Every little thing. There should be nothing kept back from you."

"I don't ask, Osborn," she replied very gently.

Silence settled down upon them. They remained at the top of the great
hill, each staring down it into the long space of unearthly clearness
and light. Automatically he withdrew his arm from her shoulders where
it had been resting heavily and dropped his hand on the
steering-wheel. After awhile he said:

"By the way, I'm going out with this car to-morrow."

"So you told me," she answered.

"Had I mentioned it before?" he said thickly. "Well ... I shall be out
all day."

"Thank you for telling me. It's considerate of you. We make a little
difference in the catering if you're out."

He clenched his hand round the wheel.

"I'm running down to Brighton; but I shall get back to town for
dinner; late motoring's pretty cold in November. I shall be dining at
Pagani's--where we used to go so much, you remember."

"I remember. I hope you'll have a fine day."

He gave a savage twitch to the hand-brake, let in his clutch, and in a
moment or two the car ran forward.

"It beats me," he whispered to himself. "It--just--beats--me."

His whisper was lost in the rush of the car down the hill. His wife
had leaned back snugly under the fur rug and her profile in the
moonlight was serene, neither happy nor unhappy, but absolutely
complacent. He seemed to get a glimpse of their future, with her
figure travelling away into a far distance, divergent from his.

[Illustration:
Osborn \ / Osborn
\ /
\/ [Symbol: Crescent moon] Honeymoon
/\
/ \
Marie / \ Marie]

That was marriage.

Two strangers met each other; fused, became of one flesh and one
spirit, kindled a big hearth fire called home; travelled away from
each other; and two strangers died. Marriage