"Tolerably well," answered Hesper.
"You do not—let me tell you. You are nothing but a baby yet. You have no heart."
"If you mean that I have never been in love, you are right. But you talk foolishly; for you know that love is no more within my reach than if I were the corpse I feel."
Sepia pressed her lips together, and nodded knowingly; then, after a moment's pause, said:
"When your hour is come, you will understand. Every woman's hour comes, one time or another—whether she will or not."
"Sepia, if you think that, because I hate my husband, I would allow another man to make love to me, you do not know me yet."
"I know you very well; you do not know yourself, Hesper; you do not know the heart of a woman—because your own has never come awake yet."
"God forbid it ever should, then—so long as—as the man I hate is alive!"
Sepia laughed.
"A good prayer," she said; "for who can tell what you might do to him!"