It all would have been a simple matter if Sheilah had been a different kind of woman. Roger was ready to do anything to assume the complete responsibility of her happiness, and there were avenues of escape that he could have opened for her. But Sheilah would not even reach out toward a happiness that any one else must pay for.
'I shall never do anything to hurt Felix,' she said. 'I want you to know that. If we can be friends without hurting Felix, all right. But otherwise' She shook her head. 'Felix is my duty, Roger, while you,' she smiled and shrugged, 'while you are only my joy.'
'Haven't you a right to a little joy?' asked Roger. 'Haven't you paid your debt to duty? Haven't you been paying it all your life?'
'When is it right for one ever to stop?' she asked wistfully, 'and when is it right for one ever to hurt an innocent person? Felix has always been good and faithful to me. He has always done all he could to make me happy. Such a man does not deserve to be treated cruelly. It would just about kill Felix if he lost me, or his faith in me. I married him of my own free will, of my own accord, against the advice of
