He lighted two candles by
the fireplace, closed the shutters and door, and went back to his pots and
pans. He said nothing, noticed nothing. It had been a day of intense
excitement for him, and he was glad to crawl back, like some tiny worm,
into the cave where he ruled supreme.
Lucia, in the lamplight, was paler than before. The three of them were
standing, curiously enough, almost as they had stood only a few brief hours
ago; and as she looked around her now she thought of this.
"So," she said. "We're back just where we started from!" The grim humor of
it came over her. Ten minutes ago she had thought her husband dead--done
for, out of the way. Now he stood before her in all his virility, in all
his cruelty; and behind him was the one man in the world that she loved.
"Not quite," said Gilbert. He stepped forward a pace or two. He saw that
Lucia was alarmed. "Come," he begged of her. "Don't be afraid." Oh, the
balm of those few words!
But she was not wholly herself yet. "What are you going to do?" she asked,
and came nearer Gilbert. How strong and determined he looked in the dim
light!
"I'm going to have this thing out," he said. "You can never go back to him
now.
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