"Howard, your case is not as bad as others. Your wife still loves you, and I don't believe she has ever wavered a moment. I wish you would see it that way."
"But, Wood, I may be able to forgive, but such a wrong I could not forget. It's the way of the South. We never forget. I have thought this terrible matter over ten thousand times, but was unable to deceive my own eyes—I saw. Sometimes I wish I had not seen."
Howard sat at the corner of the table and rested his powerful jaw in his palm gloomily. He was obstinate and so was I and thus matters stood when I began to pace the floor. I had become just as determined as he. Abruptly I stopped and looked him in the eye.
"Howard," said I, "there is no need of your being deceived. Norma Byng was then and is now as pure as driven snow—pure as an angel."
"You can only guess at that. You did not see—as I did. I would give up my hope of a future life not to have seen what I did. I will admit I love her as much as I ever did. I know it now—I wish I didn't," he said sadly. "It is one thing I must bear—one of the burdens of life," he added, depressed, but terribly firm.
"Howard, my whole life has been spent in learning what people think as much as what they do. And you have had plenty of evidence that I succeed. I tell you Norma Byng is innocent—guilty of nothing except one great indiscreet effort to aid you. She was led to believe she could. Time has not dimmed her ardent love for you one iota."
"I wish I were sure of it, but I could never be. I am, as I should be, very glad I have little Jim to love, for a man must have someone to love and work for."
"Howard, you have got to be bigger than that. You have succeeded a second time, and you are now more re-established materially; besides, you have done yourself honor—you have been the means of performing for this country a service that cannot be estimated——"
"No—Wood, you did it. It was all you, and I offer you again a half interest in the business, and this time you have got to take it. It's yours. I would never have regained it without your help."
"Howard," I said, grabbing him by the arms and raising him to his feet in a supreme determination to break his will, "from the first time I saw you until this moment you have had plenty of evidence of my friendship. I have never advised you wrong. I am not doing so now. As you stand there, resisting all reason, I spurn your offer and fling it from me as I would plunge tempered steel into the enemy. Our friendship is now being weighed for real values." My voice shook, for I was terribly in earnest as I continued: