Page:Broken Ties and Other Stories.pdf/138

 some time I was told that the disease was an incurable one, and my wife would have to suffer for the rest of her life.

‘Then one day my wife said to me: “Since my disease is not going to leave me, and there does not seem much hope of my dying soon, why should you spend your days with this living death? Leave me alone, and go back to your other occupations.”

‘Now it was my turn to laugh. But I had not got her power of laughter. So, with all the solemnity suitable to the hero of a romance, I asserted: “So long as there is life in this body of mine”

‘She stopped me, saying: “Now, now. You don’t need to say any more. Why, to hear you makes me want to give up the ghost.”

‘I don’t know whether I had actually confessed it to myself then, but now I know quite well that I had, even at that time, in my heart of hearts, got tired of nursing the hopeless invalid.

‘It was clear that she was able to detect my inner weariness of spirit, in spite of my devoted service. I did not understand it then, but now I have not the least doubt in my mind that she