A second later she sprang up and disappeared into the
assembly hall. "I thought I mightn't have locked the door," she said,
returning.
"Why, sweetheart," Jim said, in great distress, "what is it? You're not
one bit like yourself!"
"No, I know I'm not," Julia said wildly. She sat down again. "I've been
thinking and thinking all day, until I feel as if I must go _crazy_!" she
said with a desperate gesture. "And it's come to this, Jim--Don't think
I'm excited--I mean it. I--we can't be married, Jim. That's all.
Don't--don't look so amazed. People break engagements all the time,
don't they? And we aren't really engaged, Jim; nobody knows it. And--and
so it's _all_ right!"
Anything less right than Julia's ashen face and blazing eyes, and the
touch of her cold wet little hands, Jim thought he had never seen. He
stepped into the bathroom, and ran his eye along the trim row of
labelled bottles on the shelf.
"Here, drink this, dear," he said, coming back to her with something
clear and pungent in a glass. "Now, come here," and half lifting the
little figure in his arms he put her on the couch, and tucked a plaid
warmly about her.
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