Dick nodded and went into the office. The afternoon mail was lying

there, and he began mechanically to open it. His thoughts were

elsewhere.

Now that he had taken the step he had so firmly determined not to take,

certain things, such as Clare Rossiter's story, David's uneasiness, his

own doubts, no longer involved himself alone, nor even Elizabeth and

himself. They had become of vital importance to her family.

There was no evading the issue. What had once been only his own

misfortune, mischance, whatever it was, had now become of vital

importance to an entire group of hitherto disinterested people. He would

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have to put his situation clearly before them and let them judge. And he

would have to clarify that situation for them and for himself.

He had had a weak moment or two. He knew that some men, many men, went

to marriage with certain reticences, meaning to wipe the slate clean and

begin again. He had a man's understanding of such concealments. But he

did not for a moment compare his situation with theirs, even when the

temptation to seize his happiness was strongest. No mere misconduct,

but something hidden and perhaps terrible lay behind David's strange

new attitude. Lay, too, behind the break in his memory which he tried to

analyze with professional detachment. The mind in such cases set up

its defensive machinery of forgetfulness, not against the trivial but

against the unbearable.

For the last day or two he had faced the fact that, not only must he use

every endeavor to revive his past, but that such revival threatened with

cruelty and finality to separate him from the present.

With an open and unread letter in his hand he stared about the office.

This place was his; he had fought for it, worked for it. He had an

almost physical sense of unseen hands reaching out to drag him away

from it; from David and Lucy, and from Elizabeth. And of himself holding

desperately to them all, and to the believed commonplaceness of his

surroundings.

He shook himself and began to read the letter.

"Dear Doctor: I have tried to see you, but understand you are laid

up. Burn this as soon as you've read it. Louis Bassett has started for

Norada, and I advise your getting the person we discussed out of town as

soon as possible. Bassett is up to mischief. I'm not signing this fully,

for obvious reasons. G."




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