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202 went burningly through Kate in that breathing space, and afterwards she was cold, and saw herself and all the others clearly.

“I haven't come for supper. I've come to bring you back, Dan.”

Not that she had the slightest hope that he would come, but she watched him curiously, almost as if he were a stranger, to see how he would answer.

“Come back?” he echoed. “To the cabin?”

“Where else?”

“It ain't happy there.” He started. “You come up here with us, Kate.”

“And raise Joan like a young animal in a cave?”

He looked at her with wonder, and then at the child.

“Ain't you happy, Joan, up here?”

“Oh, Daddy Dan, Joan's so happy!”

“You see,” he said to Kate, “she's terribly happy.”

It was his utter simplicity which convinced her that arguments and pleas would be perfectly useless. Just behind the cool command which she kept over herself now was hysteria. She knew that if she relaxed her purposefulness for an instant the love for him would rush over her, weaken her. She kept her mind clear and steady with a great effort which was like divorcing herself from herself. When she spoke, there was another being which stood aside listening in wonder to the words.

“You've chosen this life, Dan, I won't blame you for leaving me this time any more than I blamed you