stop, David; I can’t stop. I haven’t cried for so long, and now I can’t stop.”

“Sweetheart, don’t try to stop. Cry it all out. Wash the stains from me of the cruel old world where I have been; cleanse me so that I may see as clearly as you see; but you would have to cry forever to do that, wouldn’t you, sweet? And soon you must laugh again.”

He clasped and comforted her as she was used to comfort her baby, soothing her and drying her eyes with his own handkerchief. “Yours isn’t large enough for such a flood, is it, sweet?”

“No, a — a — and I — I can-can’t find mine,” she sobbed “I — I — left it tucked under baby’s chin — and now I’ve