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Rh quarreled with her, and she can't stand people saying things like that. I don't like it, either. And it would hurt Mortimer's feelings dreadfully. He'd think I was n't happy with them. You could n't make him understand. Besides, I don't want to live in a house of my own all alone. I 'd die of the blues. Think how dismal I 'd be with nobody but servants and Chinamen!"

Gault looked out of the window near him and made no immediate response. The appearance of squalor which marked the street was intensified by the rain, which was now falling heavily. Already the pavements shone with the greasiness of well-tramped mud. Miserable pedestrians, without umbrellas and in scanty clothes, stood under the dripping projections before show-windows, looking out with yellow, dejected faces. Others plodded drearily onward, their heads lowered against the descending flood. Women passed, with bare, red hands gripping at their sodden skirts. In the depths of the dark interiors Gault had seen so often, lights were being kindled that shone like small red sparks in the thick, smothering gloom. Without turning from the window, he said:

"But why marry Tod? If you want liberty, a larger and more independent life, why not choose some one else?"