‘Remember how you have been speaking to me.’
‘And you think I should treat you brutally if you came into my power?’
‘Not brutally, in the ordinary sense of the word. But with faults of temper which I couldn’t bear. I have my own faults. I can’t behave as meekly as some women can.’
It was a small concession, but Reardon made much of it.
‘Did my faults of temper give you any trouble during the first year of our married life?’ he asked gently.
‘No,’ she admitted.
‘They began to afflict you when I was so hard driven by difficulties that I needed all your sympathy, all your forbearance. Did I receive much of either from you, Amy?’
‘I think you did—until you demanded impossible things of me.’
‘It was always in your power to rule me. What pained me worst, and hardened me against you, was that I saw you didn’t care to exert your influence. There was never a time when I could have resisted a word of yours spoken out of your love for me. But even then, I am afraid, you no longer loved me, and now—’
He broke off, and stood watching her face.