Joe's face had grown so queer and drawn that sometimes as she looked at him a sickening dread stole into her mind.

"Is he really too old ?" she asked herself.
One Saturday night when he came home, with a sudden leap of compassion she saw what a day he had been through.

"But he is through! Something has happened!" she thought.

And she treated him very tenderly--both because of the state he was in, and more perhaps because she knew how bad it would be for both of them if he had decided against her.
"How has the work been going ?" she asked.

He looked at her almost with dislike.
"For a month," he said, "you've been trying to make me give up that Riverside scheme." He paused, and her heart was in her mouth.
"I haven't said so, have I ?" "No--you haven't said so," he growled.
"Well ?" "It's off.