“I am telling you the truth, Godfrey,” replied she, lifting her gold-brown eyes to gaze at me. “As God is my judge, I am telling you the truth.”
“No doubt you think you are,” said I diplomatically. “But your good sense must tell you that there’s something wrong.”
“Yes—with you,” was her answer in a sad tone. “I hoped we could begin to be happy at once. I see now that I’ve got to win you back.”
I concealed my panic behind an amused laugh. “I suppose I’ve misled you into forming this poor estimate of my intelligence where you are concerned,” said I. “You have thought all these years that, because I said nothing, I did not understand. The truth is, for many years I have understood you thoroughly, Edna. You doubt it. You say to yourself, ‘If he had understood, he would have been furious and would not have allowed me to use him as a mere pocketbook.’”
Up she started, wounded to the quick. “Godfrey!” she cried. “How you hurt! Oh, my dear—spare me. If you had such a low opinion of me, don’t tell me about it. Perhaps I deserve your contempt. God knows, I thought I was doing right. Don’t be harsh with me, dearest. I am only a woman, after all.”
I shook my head smilingly. “Drop it,” said I. “You are entirely too strong a person to be able to hide behind a plea of weakness. I have let you use me for your own selfish pleasure all these years because I did not especially care. Also, it kept you away from me—which was highly agreeable to us both.”
The anguish in her eyes, whether it was genuine or not, looked so sincere that I avoided her gaze.
“But,” I went on, “I’m no longer in the mood to be used. You got through with me, as you thought, and divorced me and prepared to marry a man more to your liking——”
“Godfrey—you needn’t be jealous of him—of anyone!”
I made a gesture of resigned despair. Jealous! Her vanity rampant. It had seized upon an insignificant phrase and had found what it was eagerly looking for. “I am not jealous of him,” said I, “though it would be useless for me to try to convince you. Still, I repeat—I am not jealous. I was merely saying that you have cast me off, that I choose to regard your action as final, that I shall not let you fasten on me again simply because your selfishness and vanity happen to discover a new value in me. Do I make my position clear?”