But, in any event, he concluded, it was a miserable business. Still,
he had only done what was right. He had seen it coming on for a month
now, and how much better it was that they should separate now than
later, or that they should have had to live separated in all but
location for the rest of their lives! Yes, he had done the right
thing--decidedly the only thing to do.
He was still walking up the Avenue, and had reached Thirty-second
Street, at which point his thoughts received a sudden turn. A half-
dozen men in a club window nodded to him, and brought to him sharply
what he was going back to. He had dropped out of their lives as
entirely of late as though he had been living in a distant city. When
he had met them he had found their company uninteresting and
unprofitable. He had wondered how he had ever cared for that sort of
thing, and where had been the pleasure of it. Was he going back now to
the gossip of that window, to the heavy discussions of traps and
horses, to late breakfasts and early suppers? Must he listen to their
congratulations on his being one of them again, and must he guess at
their whispered conjectures as to how soon it would be before he again
took up the chains and harness of their fashion? He struck the
pavement sharply with his stick.
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