est to make you feel what I really
want, and what a mistake you've been making. Please listen, while I try
to be clear." Her expression was strained as she looked at him. She
smiled a little. "I am not like my sister. I'd rather not say much
about her now. She--had her good points, too--she's dead. And all you
need to know is this. You were wrong about me in those first months--I
was trying to get away from Joe. I had my own dreams and I wished to be
free. I even tried to earn my living. I worked for a while. But the
man I worked for--frightened me--and that threw me back on Joe. He was
poor then, so I nursed his child and ran his home on very little. And I
liked that. Believe me--please! I liked that! And I think the main
reason for it was that I was falling in love, not with her husband but
with the man whom you were bringing back to life. It was that in him,
that kind of ambition and that kind of life and friends, that I
wanted--oh, so hard! I was groping about to get them--but it's not easy
in New York. And meanwhile we were married, and about that part of it
you were right. I was selfish, I did want him all. I let everything
go, kept everything out--especially his business. I was jealous of you
as I was of his wife--of everything past--I wanted him new!

"Then my baby came, and it was a time when I did a good deal of
thinking. I--thought out my sister. I saw how different we were. What
she wanted I didn't want at all. So I set to work to change him--and I
thought I was doing it all by myself--just as you thought you were doing
it. Each of us was working alone--and we thought we were working in
spite of each other--against each other. I was against you in his
office, you were against me in his home. And because you hadn't any
idea of what I was trying, you made him work for money for me--to buy me
off! But I don't want money--alone, I mean! And when he came and said
he was rich, it frightened me--I wasn't ready--I had no friends! And so
the money only brought back my sister's friends in a perfect horde--and
with them her memory--her influence--her husband!

"Oh, can't you understand what I mean--and how I'm placed and what it's
like? Can't you believe that I want in him exactly what you want
yourself? But it hasn't been easy! Don't you see? I am only a second
wife! She's here--she has been--all the time--like a ghost--and we
never speak her name! But if you will only work with me--"

She stopped with a quick turn