If love be rough with you, be rough with love.
"How can you?" he said aloud. "You can't, no matter what it does to you!"
He went at last to the station and caught his train to Ballyards. Eleanor was waiting on the platform for him. She did not speak when he arrived. She ran to him and put her arms about him and hugged him and cried over him. "My dear, my dear!" she said when she had recovered herself. He took her arm and led her out of the station, and they walked home together.
"It was terrible." she said. "I had to fight hard to keep myself from going to you. We've been very foolish, John, haven't we?"
He nodded his head.
They entered the house by the side-door and went into the kitchen where Mrs. MacDermott was preparing the mid-day meal. She waited for him to speak to her.
"I've come home, mother!" he said, going to her and kissing her.
"I'm thankful glad, son!" she replied.
IV
Uncle William took him into the shop, and they sat together on stools in the "Counting House."