“Don’t say that. Don’t you find me good enough? Come Jehane, I’ve not been a bad sort, now have I?”
“I’m accusing myself. I’ve tried to help you in wrong ways. I’ve been angry and sharp and nervous. You’ve come home and attempted to kiss me, and I’ve driven you out with my temper. And I don’t want to do it any more, and yet——”
“You’re upset.”
“No, I’m not. I’m speaking the truth. I’ve been a bad wife and I had to tell you.”
“‘Pon my word, can’t see how you make that out. You’ve given me your money to invest through Wagstaff, so he might think I had capital. And you’ve given me children, and——”
“It isn’t money that counts. It isn’t even children. Heaps of women whose husbands beat them bear them children. It’s that I haven’t trusted you sufficiently. I haven’t loved you.”
“I’ve not complained, so I don’t see—— But what’s put all this into your head?”
“D’you want to know? Seeing Billy and Nan together. They’re so different—you can feel it. They’re really married, while we—we just live together.”
Her voice broke. He put his arms about her, but even then she withdrew herself from him.
“Just live together! And isn’t that marriage? Whether you’re cross or kind to me, Jehane, I’d rather just live with you than be married to any other woman.”