“But she happens to be the only woman I've ever really wanted to marry, for more than a few days at a stretch. You know how it is with us.”
“Oh, yes, I know,” said March, and they shouted again.
“We're in love, and we're out of love, twenty times. But this isn't a mere fancy; it's a conviction. And there's no reason why she shouldn't marry me.”
March smiled gravely, and his smile was not lost upon Kenby. “You mean the boy,” he said. “Well, I like Rose,” and now March really felt swept from his feet. “She doesn't deny that she likes me, but she seems to think that her marrying again will take her from him; the fact is, it will only give me to him. As for devoting her whole life to him, she couldn't do a worse thing for him. What the boy needs is a man's care, and a man's will—Good heavens! You don't think I could ever be unkind to the little soul?” Kenby threw himself forward over the table.
“My dear fellow!” March protested.
“I'd rather cut off my right hand!” Kenby pursued, excitedly, and then he said, with a humorous drop: “The fact is, I don't believe I should want her so much if I couldn't have Rose too. I want to have them both. So far, I've only got no for an answer; but I'm not going to keep it. I had a letter from Rose at Carlsbad, the other day; and—”
The waiter came forward with a folded scrap of paper on his salver, which March knew must be from his wife. “What is keeping you so?” she wrote. “I am all ready.” “It's from Mrs. March,” he explained to Kenby. “I am going out with her on some errands. I'm awfully glad to see you again. We must talk it all over, and you must—you mustn't—Mrs. March will want to see you later—I—Are you in the hotel?”
“Oh yes. I'll see you at the one-o'clock table d'hote, I suppose.”
March went away with his head whirling in the question whether he should tell his wife at once of Kenby's presence, or leave her free for the pleasures of Wurzburg, till he could shape the fact into some safe and acceptable form. She met him at the door with her guide-books, wraps and umbrellas, and would hardly give him time to get on his hat and coat.
