‘I’ll tell you what has changed me,’ said he, looking up. ‘My wife has changed me.’
‘Oh, bother your wife!’
A look which was new to her came over his face.
‘Stop that!’ said he sharply.
‘Oh, no harm! How has your wife made this wonderful change?’
His mood softened as his thoughts flew back to Woking.
‘By her own goodness—the atmosphere that she makes round her. If you knew how wholesome she was, how delicate in her most intimate thoughts, how fresh and how sweet and how pure, you would understand that the thought of being false to her is horrible. When I think of her as she sat at breakfast this morning, so loving and so innocent—’
He would have been more discreet if he had been less eloquent. The lady’s temper suddenly overflowed.
‘Innocent!’ she cried. ‘As innocent as I am.’
He sprang to his feet with eyes which were more angry than her own.