She seemed not to hear. The tears were running down her rigid face.
'Happy mothers teach their children. Mine had to teach me——'
'You talk as if——'
'——teach me that a woman may do that for love's sake that shall kill love.'
Neither spoke for some seconds. Fearing and putting from him fuller comprehension, he broke the silence, saying with an air of finality—
'You certainly made it plain you had no love left for me.'
'I had need of it all for the child.' Her voice had a curious crooning note in it.
He came closer. He bent down to put the low question, 'Do you mean, then, that after all—it lived?'
'No. I mean that it was sacrificed. But it showed me no barrier is so impassable as the one a little child can raise.'