"Unity—!" broke from Durham; and Madame de Treymes gently suffered his smile.
"Of the family tradition, I mean: it introduces new elements. You are a new element."
"Thank heaven!" said Durham again.
She looked at him singularly. "Yes—you may thank heaven. Why isn't it enough to satisfy Fanny?"
"Why isn't what enough?"
"Your being, as I say, a new element; taking her so completely into a better air. Why shouldn't she be content to begin a new life with you, without wanting to keep the boy too?"
Durham stared at her dumbly. "I don't know what you mean," he said at length.
"I mean that in her place—" she broke off, dropping her eyes. "She may have another son—the son of the man she adores."
Durham rose from his seat and took a quick turn through the room. She sat motionless, following his steps through her lowered lashes, which she raised again slowly as he stood before her.
"Your idea, then, is that I should tell her nothing?" he said.