"There's one thing I want to ask you," she began, in a careless, casual sort of tone, though there was a choking sensation in her throat. "Wives love their husbands ... that's taken for granted; but do you think it's possible that wives ... can be ... loved by men--men who are not their husbands?"
Her friend didn't smile this time, but laughed outright, and Hertha felt a stone fall from her heart. Here was some one who was not going to be shocked, she thought.
"How funny you are," Meta said. "No one can prevent people loving whom they choose."
"I know.... But a man, don't you see, ought not----"
"No; he ought not, but often does."
"Does any one else love you, then?"
Meta coloured. She looked into space. Perhaps she was thinking of the man who had first captured her maiden fancy.
"I don't ask," she said. "It is more than enough that I please Hans; and, of course, I shouldn't allow anything of the kind."
"Then it isn't allowed?"
"Of course not, when they tell you so straight out."