"He hasn't returned yet."
He frowned with sudden impatience.
"I hoped—I thought he would surely be back this morning. I couldn't wait. I wanted to see him right away."
She came nearer to him and peered up into his face.
"Why do you want to see him? Tell me—please." Her little hands were gripped over her bosom. "Oh, don't tell me you, too, are mixed up in all these things. I hoped there was someone—someone I might talk to if things went worse. You stopped me once——"
"I'm afraid I can be of no use to you, Mrs. Aikens," he replied formally.
She shuddered and put her hands before her face, and he turned away quickly.
"I don't think you need worry," he told her in a low, lifeless voice. "Your husband is his own worst enemy. I believe God intended him to be a model in more than body ... but something went wrong—only temporarily, I believe. The jealous gods—the old very human Greek gods may have been less a myth than an allegory—touched his mind when it was most sensitive."
She moved over to the side-table and began to readjust the pile of papers. She was strangely moved by his defence of her husband.
"May I thank you, Professor Bulkeley, for Jim's sake?"