'You talk as if that old madness was mine alone; it is the woman's way.'
'I know,' she agreed, to his obvious surprise, 'and it's not fair. Men suffer as well as we by the woman's starting wrong. We are taught to think the man a sort of demi-god. If he tells her, "Go down into hell," down into hell she goes.'
He would not have been human had he not resented that harsh summary of those days that lay behind.
'Make no mistake,' he said. 'Not the woman alone. They go down together.'
'Yes, they go down together. But the man comes up alone. As a rule. It is more convenient so—for him. And even for the other woman.'
Both pairs of eyes went to Jean's door.
'My conscience is clear,' he said angrily. 'I know—and so do you—that most men in my position wouldn't have troubled themselves. I gave myself endless trouble.'
She looked at him with wondering eyes. 'So you've gone about all these years feeling that you'd discharged every obligation?'
'Not only that. I stood by you with a fidelity that was nothing short of Quixotic. If, woman-like, you must recall the past, I insist on your recalling it correctly.'