The Boy who Was is only asleep.

If you could let him wake, suddenly, in that house--" A clear flush of surprise stained his skin to the hair.

It had been many years since a woman had hinted at any belief in him.
"Don't you know that I couldn't endure the four walls of a house, Constance ?" "You have not tried this house." "Men--such men as I--cannot go back to the House of Youth." "Try, Jim." His hand was shaking as he lifted it to adjust his spectacles; and impulsively she laid her hand on his twitching arm: "Jim, build it!--and see what happens." "I cannot." "Build it.

You will not be alone and sad in it if you remember the boy and the child in the parlour.

They--they will be good company--if you wish." He rested his elbows on the table, head bent between his sea-burned hands.
"If I could only, only do something," she whispered.