Part 5

I still did not speak or move and he talked on without a pause. But now he seemed to pull himself together, and I could see an increasing air of satisfaction and gratification in his demeanor, as he found himself confiding in a hearer who was growing more and more sympathetic.

“It is evident that Milton had left her. It was what such propensities always lead to and only what I had expected. Life to be successful must be regular and conventional. We humans are too susceptible to the opinions of others to ignore for long any irregularities, and, as I say, he had left her and gone to Washington. Perhaps he was returning to his wife or perhaps he had just grown tired; anyhow he had reached there before he heard that Helen was dead. He probably thought I’d kill him, so he saved me the trouble.

“Dear, dear, how I should love to do something for you,” I said involuntarily, urged by the flood of sympathy the tragic tale had evoked. Then I realized that Professor Symonds might misunderstand me and think my remark too forward.

“It isn’t a situation to be envied, is it?”

When he asked the question I was thinking of life and its perplexities; the happiness and sorrows that circumstances render without the power on our part either to aid or alter. Here was a man of rare intellectual qualities, a pleasing personality, position and--best of all--a soul; yet he, like others, must live and suffer apparently through no fault of his--but through the thoughtlessness of a pleasure-seeking wife. My sympathy was spontaneous. Is it any wonder that a warm friendship sprang up between us?

And is it needless to say there was no “scoop” for the paper? In fact, my days with the press were numbered. The little cottage needed a feminine touch, and I needed all the love Professor Symonds could give me. Yet I have never been able to fathom why he married me, for my eyes were dark but not luminous; my hair was light, not golden; I was thin and bony; I was tall, yet not erect; I wanted to be wise, but had lots to learn.

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious punctuation and spacing errors have been corrected.

Page 29: “remarkd Mrs. Gary” changed to “remarked Mrs. Gary”; “in in the last two” changed “in the last two”

Page 30: “relief the monotomy” changed to “relief the monotony”

Page 47: “as she realizes that” changed to “as she realized that”

Page 49: “going to chuch” changed to “going to church”

Page 54: “she had believe it” changed to “she had believed it”

Page 70: “for there has never been” changed to “for there had never been”

Page 75: “sweet timber of a” changed to “sweet timbre of a”

Page 93: “his indelicate visit” changed to “this indelicate visit”