f I put it to her in the right way."

"And what would be the right way?"

"Oh, Lord, Edith, don't ask me. How do _I_ know? I should have to tell
her--the truth."

"And what would happen then?--to her I mean."

"I've no idea. She'd bear up against it. She's that sort of person. But
then, inwardly, she'd very likely break her heart."

"Oh, Chip, is it worth while? Think!"

"I _am_ thinking."

"Is it the spirit? That's the thing to find out."

He shook his head sadly. "I don't know how to tell."

"But suppose I do? Would you trust to me? Would you believe that the
thing I felt to be right for me was the right thing for us both?"

"I think I should."

"Well, then, listen. It's this way. You know, Chip, I love you." She had
his hand now in both of hers, twisting her fingers nervously in and out
between his. "I don't have to tell you, do I? I love you. Oh, how I love
you! It's as if the very heart had gone out of my body into yours. And
yet, Chip--oh, don't be angry--it seems to me that if I left him now and
went back to you I should become something vile. It _isn't_ because he's
so noble and good. No, it isn't that. And it isn't just the idea of
passing from one man to another and back again. We _have_ turned
marriage into opera bouffe, we Americans, and we might as well take it
as we've made it. It isn't that at all. It's--it's exactly what you said
just now: it's like a man swimming away from a sinking ship, and leaving
his wife and children to drown, because he can't rescue them. Better a
thousand times to go down with them, isn't it? You may call it waste of
human material, if you like, and yet--well, you know what I mean. I
should be leaving him to drown and you'd be leaving her to drown; and,
even though we _can't_ give them happiness by standing by, yet it's some
satisfaction just to _stand_ by. Isn't that it? Isn't that the spirit?"

He withdrew his hand from hers to cover his eyes with it. He spoke
hoarsely: "It may be. I--I think it is."

"But, _if_ it is, then the spirit of the contract is different now from
what it would have been--well, you know when. Then it meant that I
should have stood by _you_--forgiven you, if that's the word--and shown
myself truly your wife, for better or for worse. I didn't understand
that. I only knew about the better. I didn't see that a man and a woman
might take each other for worse--and still be true. If I had seen
it--oh, what a happy woman I should have been to-day