"Your wedding-ring?" she gasped breathlessly.
"I sold it in Geneva. There's no need to ask what I did with the money."
She grew pale.
"Then we are quits. Shall we make a fresh start?"
"Is that what you call fair play? You committed an act fraught with tragic consequences for the whole family, for through it I am compelled to doubt the legitimacy of my children. You are guilty of having tampered with the lineage of a family. You have dishonoured four people: your three children of doubtful paternity and your husband, whom your infidelity has made a public laughing-stock. What, on the other hand, are the consequences of my act?"
She wept. I remained firm. I said that the divorce proceedings must go on, that I should adopt the children—in the meantime she could remain in my house, if she liked. Would it not be the free life she had always been dreaming of? She had always cursed matrimony.
She reflected for a moment. My proposal did not please her.
"I remember you saying you would like the position of a governess in the house of a widower. Here's the widower for you!"
"Give me time.... We shall see.... But in the meantime do you intend to live with us?"
"If you ask me to."