ger."

"I sha'n't ask him; Archie will, won't you, Archie?" She laid her hand
on his arm, pleadingly. "If you do, it will mean that you and I are not
trying to judge our two boys, or take sides between them"--she gave a
little sob--"now when it's no use. They quarreled, as brothers will, but
they were fond of each other, for all that."

"Thor adored Claude," Lois said, simply. "I think he cared for him more
than for any one in the world that--that I know of."

Masterman wheeled suddenly and walked away, while his wife made signs to
Lois that they had won.

But it was in another frame of mind that Thor's wife said to herself, as
she saw him coming toward her along County Street: "Now I shall see! I
shall see if he will!"

She meant that now he might return to her, that he might return as a
matter of course. If he came of his own accord, something within her
would leap to greet him. So much she knew; but beyond it she would not
trust herself to go. "I shall see if he will!" she repeated, with
emphasis, throwing the responsibility of taking the first step on him.
It was on him, she felt, that it lay. She had asked him to leave her
until she was prepared to call him back, and she was not prepared. If he
were to ask to be taken back, her attitude could lawfully be different.
Since it was he who had made void the union she had supposed to be based
on love, it was for him to suggest another built on whatever they could
find as a substitute. Great as her pity for him was, she could not by so
much as a glance or a smile relieve him from that necessity.

As they drew near each other she recognized the minute as one that would
be decisive, if not for the rest of life, yet for a long time to come.
She could look ahead and select the very tree under which they would
meet. As a result of the few words that would be then exchanged their
lives would blend again--or he would go to the one house and she to the
other, and they would be further apart than they had ever been before.
He might not think it or see it, because men were so dense; but she
would be as quick to read the signs of which he would remain unconscious
as a bird to scent a storm.

For this very reason she reduced her manner, when they came face to
face, to the simplest and most casual. It was a matter of pride with her
to exert no influence, to leave him free. Not that she found it
necessary to take pains, for she saw from the first minutes of encounter
that his m