MRS. RADER HAS A WORD TO SAY
of protesting little words, and straining away. "I can't,—to-night!" The last word came out with such force that it had to be answered.
"Why not?"
"I don't know. I can't think!"
He was ready to laugh at such an excuse; but the next moment he was made to listen.
"I will not!" with a sudden passion of resolution.
"Oh!" He clasped his hands together behind him, held them tight, and looked straight before him into an extraordinarily blank future. He knew she was watching him. "To-morrow—" she dropped the little word tentatively, timidly.
The sound of it was a whip to him. "To-morrow I won't be here!" He saw how that struck her. The thought that what became of him could hurt her, gave him pleasure. "I am going away indefinitely," he said. Still she kept looking at him with the same blank face as if she hardly understood. She didn't speak. He could see no change of expression, but he realized a chill in her mood, cold, where a moment before she had been hot.
"You don't suppose I'm going because I want to?" he asked indignantly.
"I hope you are not going for any other reason."
The tone was like snow, blank and pallid; but the thought occurred to him that the film in her bright
215
