Page:The Berkeleys and their neighbors.djvu/120

 "He was always ill—or imagining himself ill. He took medicine until he nearly drove me crazy with his bottles and plasters. He lived in a bath chair when he was as well able to walk about as I was—and I was chained to that bath chair. Everything made him ill—even my singing. He would not let me sing—only think of it—think of it."

Madame Koller glanced at Pembroke through her tears. He had stood up and was saying something vague but comforting. The late Mr. Koller was indeed a dreadful reminiscence.

"Banish that time as far as you can," he said. "The present is yours."

"Is it?" she said. "Now I will say to you that black as that past is, it is not so black as this present. Now I endure torments far greater than any I felt then."

Pembroke's strong jaw was set resolutely. He felt rising tumultuously within him that masculine pity that has wrecked many men. He would not, if he could help it, prove false to himself with this woman, in spite of her tears and her voice.

"What have you to say to me?" she demanded, after a pause.

"This," answered Pembroke, with much outward boldness. "That your coming here is an unsuccessful experiment. The same things that made this country life distasteful to you in your childhood even, make it distasteful now. This is not your native atmosphere. You will never be anything but morbid and wretched here. This country