“No, I don’t think so,” Julia said, after reflection.

“Have you another engagement?”

“Certainly not!” There was almost a flash of amusement in her face; her glance toward the kitchen spoke volumes for the nature of her engagements.

“Why do you say no, then?” asked Jim.

“Because I prefer not to do so,” Julia answered, with sudden spirit.  “We look at this thing very differently, Jim,” she added roundly.  “To me it is a tragedy—­the saddest thing that ever happened in my life; that you and I should have loved each other, and should be less than nothing to each other now!  It’s like a sorrow, something shameful, to hide and to forget.  For years I was haunted by the horror of a divorce, Jim; I never wrote to you, I never begged you to come back, just because I was afraid of it!  I used to say to myself in the first awful weeks in this house:  ’Never mind—­it isn’t as if we were divorced; we may be separated, we may be estranged, but we are still man and wife!’” Tears came to Julia’s eyes, she shook her head as if to shake them away.  “I’ve hungered for you, Jim, until it seemed as if I must go mad!” she went on, looking far beyond him now, and speaking in a low, rapt voice as if to herself.  “I’ve felt,” she said, “as if I’d die for just one more kiss from you, die just to have you take my big coat off once more, and catch me in your arms, as you used to do when we came back from dinner or the theatre!  But one can’t go on suffering that way,” said Julia, giving him a swift, uncertain smile, “and gradually the pain goes, and the fever dies away, and nothing is left but the cold, white scar!”

Jim had been staring at her like a man in a trance.  Now he took a step toward her, lightly caught her in one big arm.

“Ah, but Julia, wouldn’t the love come back?” he asked tenderly, his face close to her own.  “Couldn’t it all be forgotten and forgiven?  You’ve suffered, dear, but I’ve suffered, too.  Can’t we comfort each other?”

“Please don’t do that,” Julia said coldly, wrenching herself free.  “This is no whim with me; I’m not following a certain line of conduct because it’s most effective.  I’ve changed.  I don’t want to analyze and dissect and discuss it; as I say, it seems to me too sacred, too sad, to enjoy talking about!”

“You’ve not changed!” Jim asserted.  “Women don’t change that way.”

“Then I’m not like other women,” Julia said hotly.  “Do believe me, Jim.  It’s all just gone out of my life.  You don’t seem like the man I loved, who was so sweet and generous to me.  I’ve not forgotten that old wonderful time; I just don’t connect you with it.  You could kiss me a thousand times now, and it would only seem like—­well, like any one else!  I look at you as one might look on some old school friend, and wonder if I ever really loved you!”

She stopped, looking at him almost in appeal.  Jim stood quite still, staring fixedly at her; they remained so for a long minute.