“Gone to Ivy Cliff!” he said, at last, in a low, hoarse voice.  “Gone, and without a word of intimation or explanation!  Gone, and in the heat of anger!  Has it come to this, and so soon!  God help us!” And the unhappy man sunk into a chair, heart-stricken and weak as a child.

For nearly the whole of the night that followed he walked the floor of his room, and the next day found him in a feverish condition of both mind and body.  Not once did the thought of following his wife to Ivy Cliff, if it came into his mind, rest there for a moment.  She had gone home to her father with only an announcement of the fact.  He would wait some intimation of her further purpose; but, if they met again, she must come back to him.  This was his first, spontaneous conclusion; and it was not questioned in his thought, nor did he waver from it an instant.  She must come back of her own free will, if she came back at all.

It was on the twentieth day of December that Irene left New York.  Not until the twenty-second could a letter from her reach Hartley, if, on reflection or after conference with her father, she desired to make a communication.  But the twenty-second came and departed without a word from the absent one.  So did the twenty-third.  By this time Hartley had grown very calm, self-adjusted and resolute.  He had gone over and over again the history of their lives since marriage bound them together, and in this history he could see nothing hopeful as bearing on the future.  He was never certain of Irene.  Things said and done in moments of thoughtlessness or excitement, and not meant to hurt or offend, were constantly disturbing their peace.  It was clouds, and rain, and fitful sunshine all the while.  There were no long seasons of serene delight.

“Why,” he said to himself, “seek to prolong this effort to blend into one two lives that seem hopelessly antagonistic.  Better stand as far apart as the antipodes than live in perpetual strife.  If I should go to Irene, and, through concession or entreaty, win her back again, what guarantee would I have for the future?  None, none whatever.  Sooner or later we must be driven asunder by the violence of our ungovernable passions, never to draw again together.  We are apart now, and it is well.  I shall not take the first step toward a reconciliation.”

Hartley Emerson was a young man of cool purpose and strong will.  For all that, he was quick-tempered and undisciplined.  It was from the possession of these qualities that he was steadily advancing in his profession, and securing a practice at the bar which promised to give him a high position in the future.  Persistence was another element of his character.  If he adopted any course of conduct, it was a difficult thing to turn him aside.  When he laid his hand upon the plough, he was of those who rarely look back.  Unfortunate qualities these for a crisis in life such as now existed.