"He's in Rochester, but he couldn't come.
Bass said he was married," she added.
"There isn't any other member of the family you could persuade to come and live with you?"
"I might get William, but I don't know where he is."
"Why not try that new section west of Jackson Park," he suggested, "if you want a house here in Chicago?
I see some nice cottages out that way.
You needn't buy.
Just rent until you see how well you're satisfied."
Jennie thought this good advice because it came from Lester.
It was good of him to take this much interest in her affairs. She wasn't entirely separated from him after all.
He cared a little.
She asked him how his wife was, whether he had had a pleasant trip, whether he was going to stay in Chicago.
All the while he was thinking that he had treated her badly.
He went to the window and looked down into Dearborn Street, the world of traffic below holding his attention.
The great mass of trucks and vehicles, the counter streams of hurrying pedestrians, seemed like a puzzle.
So shadows march in a dream.
It was growing dusk, and lights were springing up here and there.
"I want to tell you something, Jennie," said Lester, finally rousing himself from his fit of abstraction.
"I may seem peculiar to you, after all that has happened, but I still care for you—in my way.
I've thought of you right along since I left.
I thought it good business to leave you—the way things were.
I thought I liked Letty well enough to marry her.
From one point of view it still seems best, but I'm not so much happier.
I was just as happy with you as I ever will be.
It isn't myself that's important in this transaction apparently; the individual doesn't count much in the situation.
I don't know whether you see what I'm driving at, but all of us are more or less pawns.
We're moved about like chessmen by circumstances over which we have no control."
"I understand, Lester," she answered.
"I'm not complaining.
I know it's for the best."
"After all, life is more or less of a farce," he went on a little bitterly.
"It's a silly show.
The best we can do is to hold our personality intact.
It doesn't appear that integrity has much to do with it."
Jennie did not quite grasp what he was talking about, but she knew it meant that he was not entirely satisfied with himself and was sorry for her.
"Don't worry over me, Lester," she consoled.
"I'm all right; I'll get along.
It did seem terrible to me for a while—getting used to being alone.
I'll be all right now.
I'll get along."
"I want you to feel that my attitude hasn't changed," he continued eagerly.
"I'm interested in what concerns you. Mrs.—Letty understands that. She knows just how I feel.
When you get settled I'll come in and see how you're fixed.
I'll come around here again in a few days.
You understand how I feel, don't you?"
"Yes, I do," she said.
He took her hand, turning it sympathetically in his own.
"Don't worry," he said.
"I don't want you to do that.
I'll do the best I can.