"You'll find this sort of thing is a devil of a jigsaw. It cuts in all directions," he said, laying his hand on Travers's shoulder.
"Yes, doesn't it? But, Doctor Ledyard, I want to tell you something. She's right—that girl of mine, and Margaret Moffatt, too—and you know it as well as I do! If I can, I'm going to have my love and my woman; but even if I go empty hearted to my grave I shall know—they are right! Besides being women, and our loves, they are human beings, and they are beginning to find it out. The way may lead through hell, but it ends in——"
"What?" Ledyard breathed; his eyes fixed on the stern young face.
"In understanding. It leads to the responsibility all women must take. Good night, old friend."
CHAPTER XXIV
Priscilla had gone straight from Margaret Moffatt's to her own little apartment. She had no sense of suffering; no sensation at all. She must pack and get away! And like a dead thing she set to work, although it was midnight and she had been so weary before; and then she smiled quiveringly:
"Before!"
She stood and stretched out her arms to the empty space where Travers had been.
"Oh! my dear, dear man!" she moaned. "My beloved!"