"I know that I have been a fool, and worse. Even you don't know how great a fool I have been. To-night I have been trying to drown thought."
She knelt on the floor beside the bed, stretching out her hands to me across the coverlet.
"Tom! You're not playing with me, as they say some husbands do play with their wives? Tell me what you mean?"
I found this tone harder to bear than the other. A shudder went all over me. I closed my eyes. What did I mean? How could I tell her? My throat went dry and husky--a condition which was not owing to the potations of the night.
"I've been a good husband to you, haven't I? I've tried to be."
"My darling, you've been the best husband in the world. That's what makes this seem so strange." She alluded to the events of the night. "Why have you been so silly?" Putting her arms about my neck, she drew me towards her.
"You have no conception how silly I have been."
She laid her cool cheek against my fevered one. "Tell me all about it. Is it money?"
"Money would be nothing."
Her voice sank. "What is it?"