, as hundreds of others live, with outside interests for
our chief distraction. You came, a friend! You were very subtle, very
skillful! You never spoke a word of affection to me, but you managed
things so that--people talked. You encouraged Lumley to speculate--not
in actual words, perhaps, but by suggestion. Then you lent me money.
Lumley, my husband, let me borrow from you. Everyone knew that we were
ruined; everyone knew where the money came from that set us right. So
misery has been piled upon misery. Lumley has lost his self respect, he
is losing his ambition, he is deteriorating every day. I--how can I do
anything else but despise him? He let me, his wife, come to your rooms
to borrow money from you. Do you think I can ever forget that? Do you
think that he can? Don't you know that the memory of it is dragging us
apart, must keep us apart always--always?"

Wingrave leaned a little forward. His hands were clasped upon the handle
of his stick.

"All that you tell me," he remarked coldly, "might equally well have
been said in London! I do not wish to seem inhospitable, but I am still
waiting to know why you have taken an eight hours' journey to recite a
few fairly obvious truths. Your relations with your husband, frankly, do
not interest me. The deductions which society may have drawn concerning
our friendship need scarcely trouble you, under the circumstances."

Then again the light was blazing in her eyes.

"Under the circumstances!" she repeated. "I know what you mean. It is
true that you have asked for nothing. It is true that all this time you
have never spoken a single word which all the world might not hear, you
have never even touched my fingers, except as a matter of formality.
Once I was the woman you loved--and I--well you know! Is this part of
your scheme of torture, to play with me as though we were marionettes,
you and I, with sawdust in our veins, dull, lifeless puppets! Well, it
is finished--your vengeance! You may reap the harvest when you will!
Publish my letters, prove yourself an injured man. Take a whip in your
hand if you like, and I will never flinch. But, for heaven's sake,
remember that I am a woman! I am willing to be your slave, nurse you,
wait upon you, follow you about! What more can your vengeance need? You
have made me despise my husband, you have made me hate my life with
him! You have forced me into a remembrance of what I have never really
forgotten--and oh! Wingrave," she added,