"Because of----" She could not yet bring herself to mention his mother. "Because of your career."
"My career!" He laughed, holding her in his arms. "As if my career had anything to do with it. I'm only a poor devil of a barrister, living on the charitable briefs of Jimmy Wilberforce. It's you, your reputation that counts, not mine."
"I can't let my love bring you harm." She withdrew from him--her eyes still suffused with happiness; her lips still quivering from his caress.
"Never mind me. It's you we have to consider. In law you're--you're still your husband's. Unless he lets you divorce him."
"He'd never do that."
"Why not? It's lawful. It's done every day."
"Even if he would--I couldn't. It wouldn't be playing the game."
"Aliette"--stubbornly, Ronnie rose to his feet,--"I--I want you so much that nothing else seems to matter. But I can't--I won't ask you to--to do the other thing. You talk about playing the game. What's the alternative? If you divorce your--your husband, he won't suffer. Nobody cares what a man does. But the other thing--the other thing's all wrong----"
His words chilled her to fear. But she knew that she must master fear--even as he had mastered passion.
"Are you--are you so sure?" said Aliette. "Can love, real love, ever be wrong?"