it did not hurt me to see her any more, or to hear her nasty old tongue any more because she was only a pathetic spirit. And as it worked so well with her I killed them all in my mind. I appointed a day for them to die. I even wept over it for some of them, mother and Rose, because you see, I had cared, I had expected them to be things, and it was hard to come to see they would never be any different. But I had no peace with them alive, and so they all had to go. And then it was funny to see them come into a room. I used to say to myself ‘How queer. There you are moving about as if you were a live thing. But you are just like the chair to me, and quite dead, because I don’t expect anything of you any more.’ And then, of course, I could be nice to them. For who would snub a ghost? And they all began to tell me how improved I was.”
She stopped, for Dane had taken his pipe out of his mouth and turned his face to her, and there came out of his eyes a look that abashed her. “You’re pretty ruthless, aren’t you?” he said quietly.
Then to his surprise he saw her bite her lips, and a mist come over her eyes. “Oh, no, I’m not. All that hurt, really it did.” And he saw the expression on her face that he had seen as she lay unconscious in the yard.
“I didn’t mean to imply that you can’t feel,” he said quickly, seeing that he had hurt her.
“Why, I feel far too much!” she cried. “That is why I could not stand it. That is why I had to fight. That is why I had to kill them.”
He put out a hand and patted her arm lightly. “I know. I understand.”
She subsided at once, her face flushing up. “I’m silly to be so serious,” she said, lighting another cigarette. A moment of awkwardness followed. Then Dane stood up.
