always to be where we were."

The Judge shook his head. "There is an eternity of difference, Fille,
between the sister and brother and the husband and wife. The sacredness
of isolation is the thing which holds the brother and sister together.
The familiarity of--but never mind what it is that so often forces
husband and wife apart. It is there, and it breaks out in rebellion as
it did with the wife of Jean Jacques Barbille. As she was a strong woman
in her way, it spoiled her life, and his too when it broke out."

M. Fille's face lighted with memory and feeling. "Ah, a woman of
powerful emotions, monsieur, that is so! I think I never told you, but
at the last, in my office, when she went, she struck George Masson in the
face. It was a blow that--but there it was; I have never liked to think
of it. When I do, I shudder. She was a woman who might have been in
other circumstances--but there!"

The Judge suddenly stopped in his walk and faced round on his friend.
"Did you ever know, my Solon," he said, "that it was not Jean Jacques who
saved Carmen at the wreck of the Antoine, but it was she who saved him;
and yet she never breathed of it in all the years. One who was saved
from the Antoine told me of it. Jean Jacques was going down. Carmen
gave him her piece of wreckage to hang on to, and swam ashore without
help. He never gave her the credit. There was something big in the
woman, but it did not come out right."

M. Fille threw up his hands. "Grace de Dieu, is it so that she saved
Jean Jacques? Then he would not be here if it had not been for her?"

"That is the obvious deduction, Maitre Fille," replied the Judge.