silent, staring at her. Presently he began again:

"She is a little fool. I do not care for the whole of her as much as I
care for your one finger. What does it matter what one does in that way
if one does not care? The soul, not the body, is faithful. A man
satisfies appetite--it is nothing."

Gyp said:

"Perhaps not; but it is something when it makes others miserable."

"Has it made you miserable, my Gyp?"

His voice had a ring of hope. She answered, startled:

"I? No--her."

"Her? Ho! It is an experience for her--it is life. It will do her no
harm."

"No; nothing will do anybody harm if it gives you pleasure."

At that bitter retort, he kept silence a long time, now and then heaving
a long sigh. His words kept sounding in her heart: "The soul, not the
body, is faithful." Was he, after all, more faithful to her than she had
ever been, could ever be--who did not love, had never loved him? What
right had she to talk, who had married him out of vanity, out of--what?

And suddenly he said:

"Gyp! Forgive!"

She uttered a sigh, and turned away her face.

He bent down against the eider-down. She could hear him drawing long,
sobbing breaths, and, in the midst of her lassitude and hopelessness, a
sort of pity stirred her. What did it matter? She said, in a choked
voice:

"Very well, I forgive."

XIV

The human creature has wonderful power of putting up with things. Gyp
never really believed that Daphne Wing was of the past. Her sceptical
instinct told her that what Fiorsen might honestly mean to do was very
different from what he would do under stress of opportunity carefully put
within his reach.

Since her return, Rosek had begun to come again, very careful not to
repeat his mistake, but not deceiving her at all. Though his
self-control was as great as Fiorsen's was small, she felt he had not
given up his pursuit of her, and would take very good care that Daphne
Wing was afforded every chance of being with her husband. But pride never
let her allude to the girl. Besides, what good to speak of her? They
would both lie--Rosek, because he obviously saw the mistaken line of his
first attack; Fiorsen, because his temperament did not permit him to
suffer by speaking the truth.

Having set herself to endure, she found she must live in the moment,
never think of the future, never think much of anything. Fortunately,
nothing so conduces to vacuity as a baby. She gave herself up to