"Sixteen years," corrected the other sharply; "I'm not quite prehistoric yet."
"... And Gareth—I can't imagine him——" For the first time the girl had dropped her easy self-possession; spoke in broken stammering sentences. She had set forth to deal with the situation of a wife to be discarded as quickly and kindly as possible.... And here was her man's mistress veritably unburdening herself of him as though he were an encumbrance: "You can have him when you like."... It staggered Patricia to find her wish so attainable; as though she had been gazing longingly at an object set about with spiked railings—and suddenly the railings were fallen flat to the ground, and she might advance as she chose....
"Did Gareth tell you I was his wife?"
"N-no. No, I don't think he did." Patricia laughed, and some of her embarrassment went. "D'you know, I'm afraid I was conventional enough to take it for granted. The Lord knows why! I've a decently improper point of view as a rule. But Gareth does give the impression of what is called 'a marrying man.'"
"You're right—and very keen-sighted. He is a marrying man. It was I who was fool enough to try and remould what nature had cast him for. I had lived too long and too intimately with a commonplace couple—my brother and his wife—and had gradually sickened at the state of marriage which deadened live things to clay. I thought that omission of the actual ceremony would remove that possibility.... What do you think of my brilliant reasoning?" with a harsh laugh.
And Patricia said gently: "It worked out to exactly the same thing, of course."
"It worked out—a little bit worse."
... A barrel-organ started to play its tunes in the road just outside. The sudden loud jangle fell startlingly into the silence which had succeeded Kathleen's remark....
"Will you have some tea, Miss O'Neill?"
"Funny!" thought Patricia; "that's what I'd have said at this juncture...." And aloud: "Thanks—yes, with the utmost goodwill. It would be so melodramatic for us to refuse to break bread with each other."