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 people,&quot; he said. &quot;We're always walking around things to get new views of them—we're always rearranging the furniture. And somehow she simplifies life so tremendously.&quot; He dropped down beside her with a deprecating laugh. &quot;Not that I mean, dear, that it has n't been good for me to argue things out with myself, as you've taught me to—only the man who stops to talk is apt to get shoved aside nowadays, and I don't believe Milton's archangels would have had much success in active business.&quot;

He had begun in a strain of easy confidence, but as he went on she detected an effort to hold the note, she felt that his words were being poured out in a vain attempt to fill the silence which was deepening between them. She longed, in her turn, to pour something into that menacing void, to bridge it with a reconciling word or look; but her soul hung back, and