"Become a cypher, a slave.

That will not suit me, Hartley!" And she looked at him with firmly compressed mouth and steady eyes.
It came to his lips to reply, "Then you had better return to your father," but he caught the words back ere they leaped forth into sound, and, rising, walked the floor for the space of more than five minutes, Irene not stirring from the sofa.

Pausing at length, he said in a voice which had lost its steadiness: "You had better go up to your room, Irene.

We are not in a condition to help each other now." Mrs.Emerson did not answer, but, rising, left the parlor and went as her husband had suggested.

He stood still, listening, until the sound of her steps and the rustle of her garments had died away into silence, when he commenced slowly walking the parlor floor with his head bent down, and continued thus, as if he had forgotten time and place, for over an hour.