He had lived by her aid, and to leave her
behind would be cruelly, damnably to miss her. What could be more
overwhelming than that?
Well, he was to know within the week, for though she kept him a
while at bay, left him restless and wretched during a series of
days on each of which he asked about her only again to have to turn
away, she ended his trial by receiving him where she had always
received him. Yet she had been brought out at some hazard into the
presence of so many of the things that were, consciously, vainly,
half their past, and there was scant service left in the gentleness
of her mere desire, all too visible, to check his obsession and
wind up his long trouble. That was clearly what she wanted; the
one thing more for her own peace while she could still put out her
hand. He was so affected by her state that, once seated by her
chair, he was moved to let everything go; it was she herself
therefore who brought him back, took up again, before she dismissed
him, her last word of the other time. She showed how she wished to
leave their business in order.
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