It was half in sport that I went away, and I was so sure of seeing you at Ivy Cliff yesterday that I told father you were coming." "Irene, sit down." And Emerson took the hand of his wife and led her to a sofa.

Then, after closing the parlor door, he drew a chair and seated himself directly in front of her.

There was a coldness and self-possession about him, that chilled Irene.
"It is a serious thing," he said, looking steadily in her face, "for a wife to leave, in anger, her husband's house for that of her father." She tried to make some reply and moved her lips in attempted utterance, but the organs of speech refused to perform their office.
"You left me once before in anger, and I went after you.

But it was clearly understood with myself then that if you repeated the act it would be final in all that appertained to me; that unless you returned, it would be a lifelong separation.

You _have_ repeated the act; and, knowing your pride and tenacity of will, I did not anticipate your return.