They were parting, he and she, she knew it, and yet there was no word that she could say to him, no warning or appeal that she could utter.

If he could see that it was the end he would, she knew, start back from his shallow project.

But he did not know that it was the end and he might never know.

Did he not really understand that an adoring wife could not be fitted into their friendship?
His innocent unconsciousness of inevitable change made Helen's heart, in its deeper knowledge of human character, sink to a bitterness that felt like a hatred of him, and she wondered, looking forward, whether Gerald would ever miss anything, or ever know that anything was gone.
Gerald sat still looking up at her as though expecting some further suggestion, and as her eyes came back to him, she smiled to him with deliberate sweetness, showing him thus that her conclusions were all friendly.

And he rose, smiling back, reassured and fortified.