erved all the affection you wasted on him, or if unhappy
circumstances had separated you. But that's not the case. He has
behaved scandalously, without the least attempt at shielding you. He
has made you the talk of the place. And you may consider me narrow and
prejudiced, but this I must say--I am boundlessly astonished at you.
When he has shown you as plainly as he can that he's tired of you, that
you should still be ready to defend him, and have so little proper
pride that you even say you would take him back!----"

Louise turned on her. "You would never do that, Madeleine, would
you?--never so far forget yourself as to crawl to a man's feet and
ask--ask?--no, implore forgiveness, for faults you were not conscious
of having committed. You would never beg him to go on loving you, after
he had ceased to care, or think nothing on earth worth having if he
would not--or could not. As I would; as I have done." But chancing to
look at Madeleine, she grew quieter. "You would never do that, would
you?" she repeated. "And do you know why?" Her words came quickly
again; her voice shook with excitement. "Because you will never care
for anyone more than yourself--it isn't in you to do it. You will go
through life, tight on to the end, without knowing what it is to care
for some one--oh, but I mean absolutely, unthinkingly----"

She broke down, and hid her face again. Madeleine had carried the cups
and saucers to a side-table, and now put on her hat.

"And I hope I never shall," she said, forcing herself to speak calmly.
"If I thought it likely, I should never look at a man again."

But Louise had not finished. Coming round to the front of the
rocking-chair, and leaning on the table, she gazed at Madeleine with
wild eyes, while her pale lips poured forth a kind of revenge for the
suffering, real and imaginary, that she had undergone at the hands of
this cooler nature.

"And I'll tell you why. You are doubly safe; for you will never be able
to make a man care so much that--that you are forced to love him like
this in return. It isn't in you to do it. I don't mean because you're
plain. There are plenty of plainer women than you, who can make men
follow them. No, it's your nature--your cold, narrow, egotistic
nature--which only lets you care for things outside yourself in a cold,
narrow way. You will never know what it is to be taken out of yourself,
taken and shaken, till everything you are familiar with falls away."

She laug