For another companion," said Charlotte Stant.
"Can't a man be, all his life then," he almost fiercely asked, "anything but a father ?" But he went on before she could answer.

"You talk about differences, but they've been already made--as no one knows better than Maggie.

She feels the one she made herself by her own marriage--made, I mean, for me.

She constantly thinks of it--it allows her no rest.

To put her at peace is therefore," he explained, "what I'm trying, with you, to do.