And this command, and my promise, was that so long as I lived--no matter what might happen in my life--I would sacrifice myself body and soul sooner than allow that black monster of divorce to fasten its clutches on me.

It is futile for me to tell you these things, John Aldous.

It is impossible--you cannot understand!" "I can," he replied, scarcely above a whisper.

"Joanne, I begin--to understand!" And still without emotion, her voice as calm as the unruffled lake at their feet, she continued: "It grew in me.

It is a part of me now.