"
"Oh, Jack, how I have made you suffer!"
"Suffer? Yes, I have suffered!" Overcome by the returning pain of the
memory, he dropped into a chair, trying to control his voice. "Yes, I
have suffered!"
"Forgive me!" she said, slipping on her knees beside him, and burying
her head in his lap.
"I was out of my head--I don't know what I did, what I said. It was as
though a bomb had exploded. My life was wrecked, shattered--nothing
left."
He felt the grief again, even more acutely. He suffered for what he had
suffered.
"Jack, I never really could have _abandoned_ you," she cried bitterly.
She raised her eyes toward him and suddenly took notice of the
time-tables that lay clutched in his hands. "Oh, you were going away!"
He nodded, incapable of speech.
"You were running away?"
"I was running away--to forget--to bury myself!"
"Oh, Jack!"
"There was nothing here. It was all a blank! I was running away--to bury
myself!"
At the memory of that miserable hopeless moment, in which he had
resolved on flight, the tears, no longer to be denied, came dripping
down his cheeks.
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