"Andrea sometimes talks wildly because it amuses him to deceive people, to make them think that he is worse than he really is," she interrupted. "He loves danger, but it is because he is a brave man."
"I am sure of it," Arnold replied, "but it does not follow that he is a wise one."
She shrugged her shoulders.
"Tell me one of those many ways of living which are worth while!" she whispered. "Point out one of them only. Remember that I, too, have the spirit of restlessness in my veins. I must have excitement at any cost."
He sighed. She was, indeed, in a strange place.
"It seems so hopeless," he said, "to try and interest you in the ordinary things of life."
"No one could do it," she admitted. "I was not made for domesticity. Sometimes I think that I was not made to be wife to any man. I am a gambler at heart. I love the fierce draughts of life. Without them I should die."
"Yet you married Samuel Weatherley!" Arnold exclaimed.
She laughed bitterly.
"Yes, I was in a prison house," she answered, "and I should have welcomed any jailer who had come to set me free. I married him, and sometimes I try to do my duty. Then the other longings come, and Hampstead and my house, and my husband and my parties and my silly friends, seem like part of a dream. Mr. Chetwode—Arnold!"