"I'm old-fashioned, John," said she, her head high, though her tears fell free, "I'm just an old-fashioned, worn-out wife, that's all. I'm not so very much, John, and I never thought I was very much. I just did the best I could, all the time. I couldn't seem to do any more, John. I don't know how. I did my best!"
"We all do!" said John Rawn philosophically. "We all do our best. But when our best isn't good enough to keep us up, we go down!"
He spoke generously, gravely, judicially. He was arbiter, in his own belief, not husband. The country had changed since they two had married.
"Yes, there's much to be said for the institution of marriage, Laura," he repeated after a time. "In fact, it is a necessity, as society is organized. But divorce is a natural corollary of marriage. There are contracts, and broken contracts. That's all!"
"What is a—a corollary, John?" she asked.
"It's a consequence; it is something that follows. I meant to say, that if it is right for two people to be married, it is right for them to be divorced when the time comes. It's property, and the consequences to property, which sometimes determine that!"
"But we said, John, when we were married—I swore it with all my heart—'Till death do us part!' It isn't death. I wish it were!"
"No, it's property," said John Rawn.
VII
"But all this serves no purpose," he continued. "I don't want to have you make this hard for me!"