"If you don't mind plain speaking, he was always with you, but you weren't always with him in those days.

This letter showed that." She tapped it on her thumb-nail.

"It was only when he had gone and you saw what you had lost, that you came back to him--in heart, I mean.

Well, if you didn't go away with him when he went, and you wouldn't have gone unless he had ordered you to go--and he wouldn't do that--it's clear you deserted him, since you did that which drove him from home, and you stayed there instead of going with him.

I've worked it out, and it is certain you deserted him five years ago.