important, which he explained easily, passional
indifferences which were not explained so easily, and the like; but
since his affections were not really involved in any of those
instances, he had managed to smooth the matter over quite nicely.

"Why do you say that?" he would demand, when she suggested, apropos of
a trip or a day when she had not been with him, that there might have
been another. "You know there hasn't. If I am going in for that sort
of thing you'll learn it fast enough. Even if I did, it wouldn't mean
that I was unfaithful to you spiritually."

"Oh, wouldn't it?" exclaimed Aileen, resentfully, and with some
disturbance of spirit. "Well, you can keep your spiritual
faithfulness. I'm not going to be content with any sweet thoughts."

Cowperwood laughed even as she laughed, for he knew she was right and
he felt sorry for her. At the same time her biting humor pleased him.
He knew that she did not really suspect him of actual infidelity; he
was obviously so fond of her. But she also knew that he was innately
attractive to women, and that there were enough of the philandering
type to want to lead him astray and make her life a burden. Also that
he might prove a very willing victim.

Sex desire and its fruition being such an integral factor in the
marriage and every other sex relation, the average woman is prone to
study the periodic manifestations that go with it quite as one
dependent on the weather--a sailor, or example--might study the
barometer. In this Aileen was no exception. She was so beautiful
herself, and had been so much to Cowperwood physically, that she had
followed the corresponding evidences of feeling in him with the utmost
interest, accepting the recurring ebullitions of his physical emotions
as an evidence of her own enduring charm. As time went on,
however--and that was long before Mrs. Sohlberg or any one else had
appeared--the original flare of passion had undergone a form of
subsidence, though not noticeable enough to be disturbing. Aileen
thought and thought, but she did not investigate. Indeed, because of
the precariousness of her own situation as a social failure she was
afraid to do so.

With the arrival of Mrs. Sohlberg and then of Antoinette Nowak as
factors in the potpourri, the situation became more difficult. Humanly
fond of Aileen as Cowperwood was, and because of his lapses and her
affection, desirous of being kind, yet for the time being he was
alienated