So this laying-open the wound in his
life was nothing to Ethel. Instead of pity for him all it engendered
in her was sorrow for his wife.
How little women understood him.
There was a pathetic catch in his voice as he turned to Ethel and
said reproachfully:
"You think me purely selfish?"
"Naturally," she answered quickly. "_I_ AM. Why, not be truthful
about ourselves sometimes? Eh?"
"We quarrelled last night--about you!" he said, desperately.
"Really?"
"Gossip has linked us together. My wife has heard and put the worst
construction on it."
"Well?"
"We said things to each other last night that can never be forgiven
or forgotten. I left the house and walked the streets--hours! I
looked my whole life back and through as though it were some
stranger's" He turned abruptly away to the windows and stayed a
moment, looking down the drive.
Ethel said nothing.
He came back to her in a few moments. "I tell you we ought to be
taught--we ought to be taught, when we are young, what marriage
really means, just as we are taught not to steal, nor lie, nor sin.
In, marriage we do all three--when we're ill-mated. We steal
affection from some one else, we lie in our lives and we sin in our
relationship."
Ethel asked him very quietly:
"Do you mean that you are a sinner, a thief, and a liar?"
Brent looked at her in horror.
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