Page:Restless Earth.djvu/64

“You must make her take it, Jimmy; if not for herself, for Joan.”

“Just as you say, sweetheart. But Grace can be wonderfully obstinate———”

“It isn’t just as I say. You’ll do it because it is the right thing to do.”

“I being such a righteous person,” he mocked.

“Being that pitiful anomaly, a primitive man with a modern conscience,” she corrected him.

He watched her as she prepared to wash up with the natural economy of effort of the experienced housewife. He wondered where she had learned all these wifely tricks.

“But, sweetheart,” he baited her, “I have to support you now.”

“Who said so?” she flung at him.

“Well—it’s the usual thing,” he pointed out.

“Well, forget it, Jimmy. I will support me, and I shall pay my fair share of the—the alimony.”

“Nonsense!” he exploded.

“Is it?” she asked defiantly. “Why are you so arrogant that you assume all credit and responsibility for this situation, Jimmy?”

“If I do,” he answered, taking her by the shoulders and jutting his handsome head at her, “it’s proof that I am a man, anyhow. Make your mind easy about Grace. I’ll pay the alimony for the hurt I have done her in mistaking my liking for her for love. Some submerged part of me is bitterly ashamed that the rest of me should rejoice to see you here in her place. That is something in the nature of soul-alimony which I must pay until the end of things———”

He shook his head angrily as though to shake off useless thought. He gathered her in his arms.

“Girl, I’ve searched for you subconsciously since first I realised that women were women; and now that I’ve found you I refuse to believe that I would have been happier had I not. What is past is past. Let us forget it. Let’s forget everything but our happiness———”