It is impossible. Everything I do—everything I touch or look at—reminds me of him.

I took up a casual book of poems and the first lines that I saw brought fresh tears to my heart, if not to my eyes:

"Four ducks on a pond,

A grass-bank beyond,

A blue sky of spring,

White clouds on the wing:

What a little thing

To remember for years ...

To remember with tears!"

"It's no use," I said to myself. "The fear meets me everywhere. It's no good my trying to shirk it. I'll go in and see Mrs. Orme."