I believe you loved her, and I know that I did, and I do still, for she is very real to me, even now.

Don't you owe something to her memory?
Don't you know how she would have felt if she could have met her son the other night, as I met him, looking as he looked?
Don't you know that it would have hurt her as nothing else could?
Think a moment!" She paused, waiting for his answer and watching his impenetrable face, that did not change even when he laughed, that could not change, she thought; but she had not seen him by Marcello's bedside at the hospital, when the mask had been gone for a few seconds.

It was there now, in all its calm stillness.
"You may be right," he answered, almost meekly, after a little pause.
"I had not looked at it in that light.

You see, I am not a very sensitive man, and I was brought up rather roughly.

My dear wife went to the other extreme, of course.