asping her hands beneath her
head; "but let me think of something else while you do."

"I'm jealous of your thoughts tonight. They're making you a little
kinder than usual; but some way I feel as if they were wandering, as if
they were not here with me." She only looked at him and smiled. His eyes
were very near. He leaned upon the lounge with an arm extended across
her, while the other hand still rested upon her hair. They continued
silently to look into each other's eyes. When he leaned forward and
kissed her, she clasped his head, holding his lips to hers.

It was the first kiss of her life to which her nature had really
responded. It was a flaming torch that kindled desire.

XXVIII

Edna cried a little that night after Arobin left her. It was only one
phase of the multitudinous emotions which had assailed her. There was
with her an overwhelming feeling of irresponsibility. There was the
shock of the unexpected and the unaccustomed. There was her husband's
reproach looking at her from the external things around her which he had
provided for her external existence. There was Robert's reproach making
itself felt by a quicker, fiercer, more overpowering love, which had
awakened within her toward him. Above all, there was understanding. She
felt as if a mist had been lifted from her eyes, enabling her to took
upon and comprehend the significance of life, that monster made up
of beauty and brutality. But among the conflicting sensations which
assailed her, there was neither shame nor remorse. There was a dull pang
of regret because it was not the kiss of love which had inflamed her,
because it was not love which had held this cup of life to her lips.

XXIX

Without even waiting for an answer from her husband regarding his
opinion or wishes in the matter, Edna hastened her preparations for
quitting her home on Esplanade Street and moving into the little house
around the block. A feverish anxiety attended her every action in that
direction. There was no moment of deliberation, no interval of repose
between the thought and its fulfillment. Early upon the morning
following those hours passed in Arobin's society, Edna set about
securing her new abode and hurrying her arrangements for occupying it.
Within the precincts of her home she felt like one who has entered and
lingered within the portals of some forbidden temple in which a thousand
muffled voices bade her begone.

Whatever was her own in the hous