"It's not so simple as being glad, Billy. The word isn't relevant."
"Relevant to what?"
"I mean that you can't sum up such a situation as this by being either glad or sorry. We've other things to consider."
"But surely that comes first.
"Neither first nor second. The only question we've got to ask for the minute is what we're to do."
"But I thought that was settled—that you wanted me to come back."
"It's settled in the way that getting up in the morning is settled; but that doesn't tell you the duties of the day."
"I suppose one can only meet the duties of the day by going on and seeing what they are."
"Exactly; and isn't that our first consideration—the going on? It doesn't matter whether we're glad or sorry, since we mean to go on, or try to go on—anyhow."
Releasing her hands I dropped back into my own corner of the sofa, scanning the refined features more at my ease, for the reason that her face was slightly averted and her eyes turned to the floor.