the point?"

"Not exactly. At that time I had an able bodied father who would have
had to be dealt with. Besides, a man does not own up even to
himself--not always--when he finds himself face to face with the
inevitable. I am not speaking of what men talk about in such cases, or
of what they do, but of what they feel,--of the fact that, in too many
instances, Nature not having meant men for bondage, after they have
passed the Rubicon to that spot from which the code of civilized honor
does not permit them to turn back, they usually have a period of
regret, and are forced to make a real effort to face the Future,--to
go on, in fact."

The smile had died out of Shattuck's face and he said quite seriously:
"As far as we are concerned, Naomi, I have very different
recollections of the whole affair."

"Have you? And yet, months before we were married, I knew that it
would not have broken your heart if the wedding had not come off at
all."

"My dear, the modern heart does not break easily in this age. We are
schooled to meet the accidents of life with some philosophy."

"And yet to have lost you then, would have killed me."

Shattuck looked at her sharply, with, one might almost have said, a
new interest, but she was no longer looking at him. She went on,
hurriedly: "You loved me, of course. I was of your world. I was a
woman that other men liked, and therefore a desirable woman. I was of