XXXI
THE COST—WHO PAYS
AS I have said, I didn't really know what was going on outside. Just a word here and there. When my wits got to work right, afterward, and things happened, I knew it—as I have told it. But then I didn't. It was all a confused mass of words. So, I couldn't quite see why Dave should act so queer—except that we were all in a strained humor that night—nothing was natural.
He was sitting up straight, now, and looking through me. His face was like a ghost, with his eyes wide and burning in the midst of it. It seemed to me that I had never seen anything so awful as my own son just then. Him we thought of only lately as a baby. Little Dave! And as he looked, I felt myself becoming spell-
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