“Yes,” answered Clare. “But don’t you think that I’m right? It’s what you say, after all—”
“Not exactly, my dear. No man who doesn’t love a woman can make her happy for long.”
“Well—a man who makes a woman think that he loves her, and then leaves her for some one else, is a brute, and a beast, and a coward, and a wretch, and a villain—and I hate him, and so do all women!”
“That’s categorical!” observed Brook, with a laugh. “But I dare say you are quite right in theory, only practice is so awfully different, you know. And a woman doesn’t thank a man for pretending to love her.”
Clare’s eyes flashed almost savagely, and her lip curled in scorn.
“There’s only one right,” she said. “I don’t know how many wrongs there are—and I don’t want to know!”
“No,” answered Brook, gravely enough. “And there is no reason why you ever should.”