In the moonlight Kate turned a sudden smile on him.
"Of course I'm coming back," she said. "I always put a period to my sentences."
"Good!" he said. "But that's a very different matter from writing a 'Finis' to your book."
"I shall conclude on an interrupted sentence," laughed Kate, "and I'll let some one else write 'Finis.'"
The great train labored in, paused for no more than a moment, and was off again. It left Wander's world well denuded. The sense of aching loneliness was like an agony. She had evaded him. She belonged to him, and he had somehow let her go! What had he said, or failed to say? What had she desired that he had not given? He tried to assure himself that he had been guiltless, but as he passed his sleeping village and glimpsed the ever-increasing dumps before his mines, he knew in his heart that he had been asking her to play his game. Of course, on the other hand--
But what was the use of running around in a squirrel cage! She was gone. He was alone.
XXXI
The Federation of Women's Clubs!
Two thousand women gathered in the name of--what?