“And if two people had between them,” she suggested, wonderingly, “that with which you say they might be content, if they had it, and were sure they had it, and had with it a perfect trust in each other, but knew that they could never have more, could they be happy?”
“They could be happier than nearly everybody else in the world,” he answered.
“And if they had to go on all their lives—and if one lived in London and the other in Warsaw—Warsaw?”
“They could still be happy.”
“If she—alone at one end of Europe—” asked Wanda, with her worldly-wise searching into detail—“if she saw slowly vanishing those small attractions which belong to youth, for which he might care, perhaps?”
“She could still be happy.”
“And he? If he experienced a check in his career, or had some misfortune, and felt lonely and disappointed—and there was no one near to—to take care of him?”
“He could still be happy—if—”
“If—?”
“If he knew that she loved him,” replied Cartoner, slowly.