Ralph Stock

“ No man can do anything—least of all I. We must part to-night, and never see each other again; can't you understand—don't you see why?”
He spoke as if to a child, and as a child, still awaiting the consummation of love, she listened. Sprague saw that to her it was as if her marriage had never been, and he watched the dawning comprehension in her face with the hopelessness of a man forced to kindle a fire that it may be extinguished.
“Yes,” she said presently, “I see why—now. When did you first know?”
The woman's question! It seemed the sex entire reached womanhood by rote. ”

“ She was thinking of him now; heavens, was it possible to make a woman understand?
“Writing! Save the mark!” he muttered savagely. “It's a disease. I wish the stuff would come out on me like a rash, and let me be. I must go,” he ended abruptly. “Good-by!” And before she realized it, he had turned from her and passed up the beaten track to the hotel. ”