Its simplicities, which he thinks is regeneration, are
only new sensations. But--you have often noticed the signification of a
'but,'" she added, smiling, tapping her cheek lightly with the ivory
knife--"but the hour arrives when the bandbox becomes a prison, when the
simple hours cloy. Then the ordinary incident is merely gauche, and
expiation a bore.
"I see by your face that you understand quite what I mean. . . . Well,
these things occasionally happen. The great mistake follows the man, and,
by a greater misery, breaks the misery of the bandbox; or the man
himself, hating his captivity, becomes reckless, does some mad thing, and
has a miserable end. Or again, some one who holds the key to his mistake
comes in from the world he has left, and considers--considers, you
understand!--whether to leave him to work out his servitude, or,
mercifully--if he is not altogether blind--permit him the means of escape
to his old world, to the life to which he was born--away from the bandbox
and all therein. . . . I hope I have not tired you--I am sure I have."
Ruth saw the full meaning of Mrs. Falchion's words.
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