Page:HG Wells--secret places of the heart.djvu/298

286 takes itself seriously. He worked for it and killed himself with work for it....”

She turned to Dr. Martineau and her face was streaming with tears. “And life, you know, isn’t to be taken seriously. It is a joke—a bad joke—made by some cruel little god who has caught a neglected planet.... Like torturing a stray cat.... But he took it seriously and he gave up his life for it.

“There was much happiness he might have had. He was very capable of happiness. But he never seemed happy. This work of his came before it. He overworked and fretted our happiness away. He sacrificed his happiness and mine.”

She held out her hands towards the doctor. “What am I to do now with the rest of my life? Who is there to laugh with me now and jest?

“I don’t complain of him. I don’t blame him. He did his best—to be kind.

“But all my days now I shall mourn for him and long for him....”

She turned back to the coffin. Suddenly she lost every vestige of self-control. She sank down on her knees beside the trestle. “Why have you left me!” she cried.

“Oh! Speak to me, my darling! Speak to me, I tell you! Speak to me!”

It was a storm of passion, monstrously childish and dreadful. She beat her hands upon the cof-