She was silent again. He waited a moment, shifting his position nervously; then he said, with a touch of irritability: “You acknowledge the agreement?”
The question went through her like a shock. She lifted her head to it proudly. “I acknowledge the agreement,” she said.
“And—you don’t mean to repudiate it?”
A log on the hearth fell forward, and mechanically he advanced and pushed it back.
“No,” she answered slowly, “I don’t mean to repudiate it.”
There was a pause. He remained near the hearth, his elbow resting on the mantel-shelf. Close to his hand stood a little cup of jade that he had given her on one of their wedding anniversaries. She wondered vaguely if he noticed it.
“You intend to leave me, then?” she said at length.
His gesture seemed to deprecate the crudeness of the allusion.
“To marry some one else?”
Again his eye and hand protested. She rose and stood before him.