If one should pass
his life with her, though she might grow white-haired and wrinkled, he
would never perceive the change. Three years he had been away from her,
and she was still waiting for him as established and constant as the
house itself. He was sure that she had once cared for him. It was the
knowledge that she would always do so that had driven him away. Thus
his thoughts ran.
"I am going to be married soon," said Mary.
On the next Thursday afternoon Forster came hurriedly to Ive's hotel.
"Old man," said he, "we'll have to put that dinner off for a year or so;
I'm going abroad. The steamer sails at four. That was a great talk we
had the other night, and it decided me. I'm going to knock around the
world and get rid of that incubus that has been weighing on both you and
me--the terrible dread of knowing what's going to happen. I've done one
thing that hurts my conscience a little; but I know it's best for both
of us. I've written to the lady to whom I was engaged and explained
everything--told her plainly why I was leaving--that the monotony of
matrimony would never do for me. Don't you think I was right?"
"It is not for me to say," answered Ives. "Go ahead and shoot elephants
if you think it will bring the element of chance into your life.
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