u yourself."

"She is. Take that for granted."

Roberts waited.

"I know, though, so certainly what she would say that it seems a bit
superfluous."

Still Roberts waited.

"As I said before, she understands me and I understand her. Some things
don't require language to express. They come by intuition."

And still Roberts waited.

"If it were you, now, and there were any possibility of a yardstick it
would be different; but as it is--"

"Miss Gleason then, Mrs. Armstrong to be, doesn't care in the least to
see you come on financially, is completely satisfied with things as they
are?"

It was Armstrong's turn to be silent.

"You've been engaged now three years. You're thirty years old and Miss
Gleason is--"

"Twenty-five in August."

"She is wholly contented to let the engagement run on indefinitely,
knowing that your income is barely enough for one to live on and not at
all adequate for two?"

The other stiffened involuntarily; but he said nothing.

"I beg your pardon the second time, Armstrong, if you wish; but remember,
please, I'm doing this by request."

"I know, Darley. I'm not an absolute cad, and I'm glad you are frank.
Doubtless from your point of view I'm a visionary ass. But I don't see
where any one suffers on that account except myself."

"Don't see where any one suffers save yourself! Don't see--! You can't be
serious, man!"

Armstrong had ceased smoking. The pipe lay idle in his fingers.

"No. Come out into the clearing and put it in plain English. Just what do
you mean?"

"Since you insist, I mean just this, Armstrong--and if you'll think a
moment you'll realize for yourself it's true: you can't drift on forever
the way you're doing now. If you weren't engaged it would be different;
but you are engaged. Such being the case it implies a responsibility and
a big one. To dangle so is unjust to the girl. Let this apply in the
abstract. It's damnably unjust!"

"You think that I--"

"I don't think at all, I know. We can theorize and moon and drift about
in the clouds all we please; but when eventually our pipe goes out and we
come down to earth this thing of marriage is practical. It's give and
take, with a whole lot to give. I haven't been practising law and dealing
with marital difficulties, to say nothing of divorces, without getting a
few inside facts. Marriages are made in Heaven, perhaps, but married life
is lived right here on earth; and the butcher and the rest play leading