s . . ."

"Yes, yes. I can see what she is, clearly enough. A superbly
beautiful woman, outside and in, who possesses a good deal of influence
over you. I can be just to her, you see, if I am . . . jealous."

"Jealous? Nonsense. The word is an insult to her, and to me."

She reddened under the reproof in his tone.

"Forgive me. I didn't mean it so. I am only afraid that after close
intimacy with her you will find--your wife rather a poor thing by
comparison. Just the 'eternal feminine' with all an artist's egoism,
and more than the full complement of faults."

She spoke so simply, and with such transparent sincerity, that again he
turned on her abruptly; his smouldering passion quickened to a flame.

"Quita . . . you dear woman . . . if I could only make you
realise . . . !"

But long repression, and the knowledge that was poisoning his perfect
hour, constrained him to reticence. He dared not let himself go.

"I think I do realise . . . now . . ." she whispered, stirred to the
depths by the repressed intensity of his tone.

"Then don't belittle yourself any more. I forbid it. You understand?"

Again he heard the low laugh on which her soul seemed to ride. Then,
leaning impulsively down to him, she put her bare arms round his
shoulders from behind, and rested her cheek upon his hair.

The man held his breath, and remained very still, as if fearful lest
word or movement should break the spell. After five years of unloved
loneliness, this first spontaneous caress from his wife, with its
delicate suggestion of intimacy, seemed to break down invisible
barriers and set new life coursing in his veins.

"You forbid it?" she echoed, on a tremulous note of happiness. "And
you have the right to. You, and no one else in all the world! You
laughed at me in the old days--do you remember?--for clutching at my
independence. Well, I have had my surfeit of it now; and I am
desperately tired of standing alone . . . darling."

She paused before the unfamiliar word, unconsciously accentuating its
effect, and Lenox, taking her two hands in one of his own, kissed them
fervently. The moment he dreaded was upon him, and in the face of her
impassioned tenderness he scarcely knew how to meet it.

"You should not stand alone one minute longer, if I could have my
will," he said in a repressed voice.

She lifted her head and looked at him.

"And why can't you have your will? What are we going to do about it,
Eld