"Not to me," he explained, and there was a pause. "But I have my wife and child to think of. I need all the money I can earn."
It was the first time any reference had been made to his family. After a time Margaret said:—
"But they pay fair salaries, and any woman would rather be pinched and have her husband in the front ranks—" And then she hesitated, something in Falkner's eyes troubling her.
"I shall not decide just yet…. The offer has stirred my blood,—I feel that I have some youth left!"
They said little more. Margaret walked with him down the avenue. In her summer dress she looked wasted, infinitely fragile.
"This is not good-by," he said at last. "I shall go down the coast in a boat for a week, as I used to do when I was a boy, and my sister has a cottage at Lancaster. That is not far from Bedmouth?"
"No, it isn't far," she answered softly.
They paused and then walked back, as if all was not said yet.
"There is another reason," Falkner exclaimed abruptly, "why I did not wish to go—and you must know it."
She raised her head and looked at him, murmuring,—