brief as I can. That is my case as regards Bill. Now about myself. What
do you think I am made of? I've stood it just as long as I could; you
have tried me too hard. I'm through. Heaven knows why it should have
come to this. It is not so very long ago that Bill was half the world
to you and I was the other half. Now, apparently, there is not room in
your world for either of us.'
Ruth had risen. She was trembling.
'I think we had better end this.'
He broke in on her words.
'End it? Yes, you're right. One way or the other. Either go back to the
old life or start a new one. What we are living now is a horrible
burlesque.'
'What do you mean? How start a new life?'
'I mean exactly what I say. In the life you are living now I am an
anachronism. I'm a survival. I'm out of date and in the way. You would
be freer without me.'
'That's absurd.'
'Is the idea so novel? Is our marriage the only failure in New York?'
'Do you mean that we ought to separate?'
'Only a little more, a very little more, than we are separated now.
Never see each other again instead of seeing each other for a few
minutes every day. It's not a very big step to take.'
Ruth sat down and rested her chin on her hand, staring at nothing. Kirk
went to the window and looked out.
Over the park the sky was black. In the room behind him the light had
faded till it seemed as if night were come. The air was heavy and
stifling. A flicker of lightning came and went in the darkness over the
trees.
He turned abruptly.
'It is the only reasonable thing to do. Our present mode of life is a
farce. We are drifting farther apart every day. Perhaps I have changed.
I know you have. We are two strangers chained together. We have made a
muddle of it, and the best thing we can do is to admit it.
'I am no good to you. I have no part in your present life. You're the
queen and I'm just the prince consort, the fellow who happens to be
Mrs. Winfield's husband. It's not a pleasant part to have to play, and
I have had enough of it. We had better separate before we hate each
other. You have your amusements. I have my work. We can continue them
apart. We shall both be better off.'
He stopped. Ruth did not speak. She was still sitting in the same
attitude. It was too dark to see her face. It formed a little splash of
white in the dusk. She did not move.
Kirk went to the door.
'I'm going up to say good-bye to Bill. Have you anything to say against
that? And I shall say good-bye to him in my own way.'
She made no sign that she had heard him.
'Good-bye,' he said again.
The door closed.
Up in the nursery Bill crooned to himself as he played on the floor.
