"I've already given you my word: do you think I would lie to you?"
"No, I don't; they say men do, but I'm sure you wouldn't. I don't believe you ever would deceive me. But there have been other women, haven't there, since your wife left you?" Lawrence assented briefly. At that moment he would have liked to see Mrs. Cleve hanged and drawn and quartered. "Other women who were— who—with whom—"
"Must you distress yourself like this? Wouldn't it do if I promised to lay my record before Val, and let him be judge?"
"Would you do that?"
"If you wish it."
"Wouldn't you hate it?"
Lawrence smiled.
"And I should hate it for you,", said Isabel. "No: no one can judge you for me and no one shall try. I know you better than Val ever would. No, if you're to be humiliated it shall be before me and me only." She brought the colour into his face. "There have been others, Lawrence?"
"My dear, I've lived the life of other men."
"Do all men live so?"