“‘Well?’
“I had to gain time, first of all.
“‘Well,’ I said, ‘I cannot understand your passion. This marriage which I mentioned has never existed as yet, except in my mother’s imagination.’
“‘True?’ she asked.
“‘I assure you.’
“She examined me with suspicious eyes. At last she said,—
“‘Well, I believe you. But now you are warned: let us think no more of such horrors.’
“She might think no more of them, but I could not.
“I left her with fury in my heart.
“She had evidently settled it all. I had for lifetime this halter around my neck, which held me tighter day by day and, at the slightest effort to free myself, I must be prepared for a terrible scandal; for one of those overwhelming adventures which destroy a man’s whole life. Could I ever hope to make her listen to reason? No, I was quite sure I could not.