Page:Man's Country (1923).pdf/299

 After a moment of restrained and restraining silence, therefore, he continued in a much more professional tone.

"These wander-lust obsessions tell the story, Mr. Judson. In effect they are dreams—day-dreams, indeed, but nevertheless the porthole gleamings out of the subconscious. They reveal the whole tragic story, and they tell us exactly what to apprehend."

"Tragic? Apprehend?" George's voice was startled.

But the doctor skilfully avoided a direct answer now by saying: "First, if you please, Mr. Judson, let us consider your wife's character and temperament. She is, I gather, a soft, warm little woman—imaginative, romantic, wilful but essentially loving, fond of caresses, fond of attention, pleased with compliments, very proud of her possessions, whether material or personal. Her child is the most wonderful child. Her husband is the most wonderful hushandhusband [sic]—or was."

"Was?"

Again that startled query, and again the doctor holding his answer in abeyance while George Judson's expression slowly lost every trace of its ingrained habit of self-assurance.

"Her inheritance of character is strong, but her environing has weakened and subordinated it. She is strong-impulsed but not strong-willed.