"
"Soul?" queried Ethel, with a note of doubt.
"Yes," he answered.
"Don't you mean BODY?" she suggested.
"Body, mind AND soul!" he said, with an air of finality.
"Well, BODY anyway," summed up Ethel.
"And for what?" he went on. "For WHAT? Love! Companionship! That is
what we build on in marriage. And what did _I_ realise? Hate and
wrangling! Wrangling--just as the common herd, with no advantages,
wrangle, and make it a part of their lives--the zest to their union.
It's been my curse"
"Why wrangling?" drawled Ethel.
"She didn't understand."
"You?" asked Ethel, in surprise.
"My thoughts! My actions!"
"How curious."
"You mean you would?"
"Probably."
"I'm sure of it." He tried to take her hand. She drew it away, and
settled herself comfortably to listen again:
"Tell me more about your wife."
"The slightest attention shown to any other woman meant a
ridiculous--a humiliating scene."
"Humiliating?"
"Isn't doubt and suspicion humiliating?"
"It would he a compliment in some cases."
"How?"
"It would put a fictitious value on some men."
"You couldn't humiliate in that way," he ventured, slowly.
"No. I don't think I could. If a man showed a preference for any
other woman she would be quite welcome to him.
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