Psychologists will tell us all about the subcon-
scious mind, the hidden loves and hates and longings
which we believe are dead and long forgotten. When
one of those emotions suddenly comes alive and
stands, terribly real and intrusive, between our souls
and our everyday lives, the strongest and the best of
us may stumble and grope blindly after content, or
reparation, or forgetfulness, or whatever seems most
likely to give relief.

I am apologizing now for Bud, who had spent a
good many months in pushing all thoughts of Marie
out of his mind, all hunger for her out of his heart.
He had kept away from towns, from women, lest he
be reminded too keenly of his matrimonial wreck.
He had stayed with Cash and had hunted gold, partly
because Cash never seemed conscious of any need of a
home or love or wife or children, and therefore never
reminded Bud of the home and the wife and the
love and the child he had lost out of his own life.
Cash seldom mentioned women at all, and when he
did it was in a purely general way, as women touched
some other subject he was discussing. He never
paid any attention to the children they met casually

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