COMMUTER'S WIFE 225 



seemed to steal away from me, not leaving wholly 

 but keeping beyond my grasp, as it does when the 

 body lies long unconscious before death. 



Then father, wholly comprehending, in spite of 

 risk carried me home, I never knew how, and when 

 I next looked out I saw the gray-limbed maples 

 framing sunset, and in that glow my life came back 

 to me. Now it occurs to me that father's study of 

 two imaginative, high-strung women at close range 

 has given him his wondrous insight into the sex 

 temperament, a knowledge that the mere technically 

 perfect scientist fails to compass. 



I have been to the city, and the return fills me with 

 ecstasy. Here are some delights that the savage 

 misses from sheer lack of contrast, some phases of 

 civilization- that are worth bearing temporarily for the 

 pleasure of the reaction. If one never went to the city, 

 one might not so keenly realize the country's potency, 

 just as it is well worth the trouble of wearing best 

 clothes occasionally, if merely for the pleasure of 

 taking them off. 



I should have stored away the details of this visit 

 with the " general results " of the year, for after all 

 it was fairly comfortable as visits go, but the Fa- 



