"

"Have you really no choice but to do this?" Cecily asked, with much
earnestness.

"Oh, I could have stayed if I had chosen. He doesn't beat me. I have as
much of my own way as I could expect. Perhaps you'll think me
unreasonable. A Turkish woman would."

Cecily sat mute. She could not but resent the harsh tone in which she
was addressed, in spite of her pity.

"It's only that I suffer in my self-respect--a little," Mrs. Travis
continued. "Of course, this is no reason for taking such a step, except
to those who have suffered in the same way. Perhaps you would like to
stop the carriage and let me leave you?"

"Your suffering makes you unjust to me," replied Cecily, much
embarrassed by this strange impulsiveness. "Indeed I sympathize with
you. I think it quite possible that you are behaving most rightly."

"You don't maintain, then, that it is a wife's duty to bear every
indignity from her husband?"

"Surely not. On the contrary, I think there are some indignities which
no wife _ought_ to bear."

"I'm glad to hear that. I had a feeling that you would think in this
way, and that's why I wanted to talk to you. Of course you have only
the evidence of my word for believing me."

"I can see that you are very unhappy, and the cause you name is quite
sufficient."

"In one respect, I am very lucky. I have a little money of my own, and
that enables me to go and live by myself. Most women haven't this
resource: many are compelled to live in degradation only for want of
it. I should like to see how many homes would be broken up, if all
women were suddenly made independent in the same way that I am. How I
should enjoy that! I hate the very word 'marriage'!"

Cecily averted her face, and said nothing. After a pause, her companion
continued in a calm voice:

"You can't sympathize with that, I know. And you are comparing my
position with your own."

No answer was possible, for Mrs. Travis had spoken the truth.

"In the first year of my marriage, I used to do the same whenever I
heard of any woman who was miserable with her husband."

"Is there no possibility of winning back your husband?" Cecily asked,
in a veiled voice.

"Winning him back? Oh, he is affectionate enough. But you mean winning
him back to faithfulness. My husband happens to be the average man, and
the average man isn't a pleasant person to talk about, in this respect."

"Are you not too general in your condemnation, Mrs. Travis?"

"I am content y