I didn't think so then, and it has taken me years to find it out.

I began to be conscious of it first in her marriage, then when she kept on living her lie with her husband, and last when she deserted Ellen and went off to Beach Haven alone--that broke my heart, and my mistake rose up before me, and I KNEW!" The captain stared at her in astonishment.

He could hardly credit his ears.
"Yes, better, if she'd faced it.

She would have lived here then under my care, and she might have loved her child as I have done.

Now she has no tie, no care, no responsibility, no thought of anything but the pleasures of the moment.