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 of movement such as I had never beheld. I kept my weary pace, and when she came up I did not lift my eyes.

“Adam!” she said, with gentle reproach. I stood still then, but with my face turned away.

“Forgive me!” All girlishness was gone out of her voice. It was the woman at last.

I turned my face farther from her, and we stood in silence.

“I have suffered enough, Adam,” she pleaded.

I answered quietly, doggedly, for there was nothing left in me to appeal to:

“I am glad we can part kindly…Neither of us may care much for the kindness now, but we will not be sorry hereafter…The quarrels, the mistakes, the right and the wrong of our lives, the misunderstandings—they are so strange, so pitiful, so full of pain, and come so soon to nothing.”