As time went on and the resentment he had felt towards her lost its first bitterness, Easton began to think there was perhaps some little justification for what Owen had said, and gradually there grew within him an immense desire for reconciliation—to start afresh and to forget all that had happened; but the more he thought of this the more hopeless and impossible of realization it seemed.
Although perhaps he was not conscious of it, this desire arose solely from selfish motives. The money he earned seemed to melt away almost as soon as he received it; to his surprise he found that he was not nearly so well off in regard to personal comfort as he had been formerly, and the house seemed to grow more dreary and desolate as the wintry days dragged slowly by. Sometimes—when he had the money—he sought forgetfulness in the society of Crass and the other frequenters of the Cricketers, but somehow or other he could not take the same pleasure in the conversation of these people as formerly, when he had found it—as he now sometimes wondered to remember—so entertaining as to almost make him forget Ruth’s existence.
One evening about three weeks before Christmas, as he and Owen were walking homewards together from work, Easton reverted for the first time to their former conversation. He spoke with a superior air: his manner and tone indicating that he thought he was behaving with great generosity. He would be willing to forgive her and have her back, he said, if she would come: but he would never be able to tolerate the child. Of course it might be sent to an orphanage or some similar institution, but he was afraid Ruth would never consent to that, and he knew that her stepmother would not take it.
“If you can persuade her to return to you, we’ll take the child,” said Owen.
“Do you think your wife would be willing?”
“She has already suggested doing so.”
“To Ruth?”
“No: to me. We thought it a possible way for you, and my wife would like to have the child.”
“But would you be able to afford it?” said Easton.
“We should manage all right.”