"Too hard. I want to make it easier. I want you to leave him irrevocably.
Then you can forget him; but not until then."
Kathryn was silent.
"What does Tom say?" she asked, at length. She had learned to depend much upon the big-bodied, big-hearted, big-minded friend of late.
"I haven't asked him," returned her sister. "But I will, now."
She rose, quickly, and went to the rose-strewn arbor-way. She could see Blake, out upon the broad lawn, playing with the child that he loved, boyish, natural, whole-souled, with all the enthusiasm unspoiled that God gives not to many who are grown.
"Tom!" she called.
"Yes?" he answered.
"Will you come here, to us, for a moment? Let Muriel stay with Mawkins."
"Right, oh!" he called, cheerily. In another moment he stood in the opening of the arbor, hair rumpled, clothing awry.
"Well?" he asked, inquiringly.