want to hear. Concerning the pursuit of a happy livelihood we were
not apt to agree.

For a half-minute longer I hesitated. Should I make the issue now or
wait until there had been time for her to realize I meant what I
said? Before I could speak she did that which I had never seen her
do before. She burst into tears.

"You must never mention such a thing as this again." Her words came
stumblingly and her usually firm and strong hands trembled badly.
"With my health in its present condition I couldn't get on without
you. You are all I have to really love, and I need you. Don't you
see what you have done? You have made me ill. Ill!"

She was strangely upset and in her eyes was a confused and frightened
look that was new to them, and quickly I went toward her, but she
motioned me away.

"Give me my medicine, and don't ever speak of such a thing
again--such a thing as you have just spoken of! You have always been
beyond my comprehension."

She swallowed the medicine I brought her in nervous gulps, the tears
running down her face as they might have done down a child's, but she
would not let me do anything for her, insisting only that she wanted
to be quiet. Seeing it was best to leave her, I went to my room and
locked the door, and for hours I fought the hardest fight of my life.

The one weapon she knew she could use effectively, she had used. If
she needed me I could not leave her, but her complete self-reliance