The
woman who would put aside pampering and stoically endure what money and
friends could alleviate is rare. Jim, pain or no pain to you, you must
find your wife and learn for yourself if she is heartless; or whether in
some miraculous way some one has proved to her what you have made plain as
possible to me. You must hunt her up, and if she is still under her
mother's and society's influence, and refuses _to change_, let her remain.
But--but if she has changed, as you have just seen me change, then you
should give her another chance if she asks it."
"I can't!" he cried.
"You must! The evidence is in her favour."
"What do you mean?" he demanded impatiently.
"Her acquiescence in your right to take the boys and alter their method of
life; her agreement that for their sakes you might do as you chose with no
interference from her; both those are the acknowledgment of failure on her
part and willingness for you to repair the damages if you can," she
explained. "Her gift of a residence, the furnishings of which would have
paid for the slight alterations necessary to transform a modern home into
the most beautiful of modern hospitals, in a wonderfully lovely location,
and leave enough to start it with as fine a staff as money can provide--
that gift is a deliberately planned effort at reparation; the limiting of
patients to children under ten is her heart trying to tell yours that she
would atone.
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