"Please don't be silly, Jack!" she broke in. "I'm quite as strong as the
average woman and, I hope, as capable. I'm grown up, you silly man! I'm
old--older than you are in some ways, even though you have been in the
world ten years longer. Can't you see I want to stretch my wings?"

"Want to leave me?" he said, and put his arms suddenly about her. She
nestled to him on the instant, lifting her face to kiss him.

"No, darling, no! Never in life! But--you must see--you must see"--her
eyes filled with tears unexpectedly, and she laid her head upon his
shoulder to hide them--"that I can't--live on you--for ever. It isn't
fair--to you--or to Adela--or to--to--anyone else who might turn up."

"Ah!" he said. "Or to you either. We've no right to make a slave of you.
I know that. Perhaps Adela hasn't altogether realized it."

"I've nothing--whatever--against Adela," Dot told him, rather shakily.
"She has never been--other than kind. No, it is what I feel myself. I
am not necessary to you or to Adela, and--in a way--I'm glad of it. I
like to know you two are happy. I'm not a bit jealous, Jack, not a bit.
It's just as it should be. But you'll have to let me go, dear. It's time
I went. It's right that I should go. You mustn't try to hold me back."

But Jack's arms had tightened about her. "I hate the thought of it," he
said. "Give it up! Give it up, old girl--for my sake!"

She shook her head silently in his embrace.

He went on with less assurance. "If you wanted to get married it would
be a different thing. I would never stand in the way of your marrying a