“You want to know what is my stumbling block? I’ll tell you—it was a woman.”
“You mean your wife? But I don’t think I ought to discuss that.” She half rose.
But she could not stop him now as he went on stumblingly, unalterably.
“Oh, no! Not that woman—my wife,” said he. “Another.”
“You needn’t tell me anything more, I think,” said she. “Are you going to tell me just some common story about yourself and some woman?”
“That’s just precisely what I’m going to do!” said he. “I’m going to kill all the respect for me you’ve ever had. Then you’ll know why I can’t be president of my own college. I’ll have to go through fire before I can. I’m not good enough. Now then you can see.”
“Who was she? When——?”
“You ought to know, certainly. It was your husband——”
She sat up suddenly, her eyes flashing. “That woman——!”
“So then you knew her?”