"Listen," she said. "Listen—this is my home, you are my friend, my husband's guest——"
"Does that matter, does anything in this world matter save that I have come back to you, that you and I love one another now as we did then and that after years of separation, years of heart sickness and longing, we are, thank God, together again. Does anything matter but that? You are married, you married the man for his money—his father's money—your father told me this—I am not speaking in anger, dear, nor contempt, I am only stating what I know to be a fact. You gave him no love, how could you, when you had none to give, for your heart was always mine."
"Oh hush, hush! Before you say any more, Harold, listen, for you must listen to me now. My father told you only the truth, I married for money, for a home, for a future—I had given up hope, I had waited so long, my youth was passing. I looked ahead, I saw old age and loneliness and oh—perhaps I was a coward, but I was afraid—afraid—Perhaps you had forgotten, perhaps you no longer lived—remember, remember that for ten years I heard no word of you: I know now that in not writing one word to me you were faithfully keeping the word of honour that my father forced you to give. Yet I did not think you had died, Harold, for if you were dead I think—I think I should have known—you were only a boy, I told myself, and the love of a boy changes, absence so often means forgetfulness. There are other women younger and more beautiful than I—No, no, let me speak, I know now that I was wrong—I know that I was wrong—yet how could I know it then? I was twenty-eight, twenty-eight and what had I to look forward to? Nothing! nothing in the world—my father had nothing to give me, I was useless, I could not work, I knew of no trade—I had been brought up in idleness, a useless creature—and the future—it meant—starvation, not merely genteel poverty, it meant worse, it meant——"
"I know, and you married for money—for a home—have I blamed you, have I shewn anger, Kathleen? No, dear, I pitied you. You married this man for his money only——"
"Not wholly, I liked him, respected him——"
"Liked him, respected him——" he smiled grimly. "But I had your heart?"
"Yes——" she said, "then."
"And now—now still now—always!"
"It is not fair, it is cruel, it is unlike you to ask me," she said, "it is too late to ask me now——"
"It is not too late. Was not your sin against me, against your love greater when you married him than any you might commit against him now?"