said that before i knew all the circumstances now i think differently you think she still means to go she handed the letter back to him i think this is to tell you so this he for his glasses the letter again yes and what s more if you refuse to go have every right to break her side of the agreement mr sank into a chair stead ring himself painfully with his stick upon my soul i sometimes think you re on her side he ejaculated no � but i like fair play she returned measuring his tea carefully into his favourite little tea pot fair play she s offering to do her part it s for you to do yours now � to take to if i find her there i never cross s threshold again mrs without answering rose and put his on the slender legged table at his elbow then before returning to her seat she found the match box and laid it by the cup it was becoming difficult for mr to guide his movements about her small room and he had rs liked being waited on mrs s proved correct when mr and arrived at they the fruit of the tree found alone to receive them he explained briefly that his wife had been and had gone to seek rest and change at the house of an old friend in the west mr expressed a decent amount of regret and the subject was dropped as if by common consent however was not so easily silenced poor s uncertain fits of tenderness had produced more bewilderment than pleasure in her sober minded child but the little girl s feelings and had developed rapidly in the atmosphere of her s affection had reached the age when children put their questions with as much ingenuity as and both mr and longed for mrs aid in her incessant as to the cause and length of s absence what she had said before going and what promise she had made about coming back but mrs had not come to though it had become a matter of habit to include her in the family to the mills she had firmly maintained the plea of more urgent engagements and the two men with only between them had spent the long days and longer evenings in and mr before leaving thought it proper to touch on his promise of giving to for the summer but to his surprise the latter after a moment of hesitation replied that he should probably go to europe for two or three months to europe alone escaped from mr before he had time to weigh his words frowned slightly i have been made a the fruit of ih tree ii the fruit of the tree to the conference on the of factory he said at length without making a direct reply to the question and if there is nothing to keep me at i shall probably go out in july he waited a moment and then added my wife has decided to spend the summer in mr s answer was a vague murmur of assent and turned the talk to other matters mr returned to town with distinct views on the situation at poor devil � i m sorry for him he can hardly speak of her he broke out at once to mrs in the course of their first confidential hour together because he cares too much � he s too unhappy because he her mr brought out with emphasis mrs drew a deep sigh which made him add i believe you re actually sorry sorry she raised her eyebrows with a slight smile should one not always be sorry to know there s a little less love and a little more hate in the world you ll be asking me not to hate her next she still continued to smile on him if s the not the hated i m sorry for she said at length and he flung back impatiently oh don t s talk of her i sometimes feel she takes up more place in our lives than when she was with us went to the conference in july and the fruit of the tree spent six weeks afterward in rapid visits to various and model factory villages during his previous european his interest had by no means been to questions the appeal of an old reaching him through its innumerable forms of tradition and beauty had roused that side of his imagination which his work at home left untouched but upon his present state of deep moral commotion the of art and history were powerless to work the foundations of his life had been shaken and the fair exterior of the world was as vacant as a s face he could only take refuge in his special task himself against every expression of beauty and poetry as so many of a phase of life that he was vainly trying to cast off and forget even his work had been to him thrust out of its place in the ordered scheme of things it had cost him a hard struggle to hold fast to his main purpose to convince himself that his real duty lay not in the money and its obligations but in carrying out his projected task as if nothing had occurred to affect his personal relation to it the mere fact that such a would have been a deliberate moral suicide a once for all of every of action made it take on at first the semblance of an obligation a sort of higher duty to the abstract conception of what he owed himself but had not in her once she had passed out of his life it was easier for him to return to a view of his situation to see and boldly confess to himself that he saw the still her the fruit of the tree duty of 