"I should bear with your husband, if I were you," he said at last,
breaking the silence. "He behaves like a brute, but I dare say he can't
help it. A man can't help his temperament, and probably you provoke him
more than you think."
Ideala was surprised, it was so long since they had mentioned her
husband. "I fear I am provoking," she answered, humbly. "But how am I
to help it? I have tried so hard, and for so long, to be patient. And I
only want to do right."
They were parting then, and he looked down at her in silence for some
seconds, and when Ideala saw the expression of his face, her heart
sank. In that one moment she realised all that his friendship had been
to her, and foresaw the terrible blank there would be for her if it
should ever end. That there was any danger, that there could be
anything but friendship between men and women who must not marry, had
not even yet occurred to her. Her intimacy with myself had prepared the
way for Lorrimer, and made this new intimacy seem also perfectly right.
"What is the matter with you to-day?" she said. "What spirit of
dissatisfaction has got hold of you?"
"I _am_ dissatisfied," he said, raising his hat, and brushing his
hand back over his hair.
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