“No,” she said. “I’ve been thinking, Charles. I want you to go to Tolu to restore Captain Cammock’s book. That is the first thing. And to make you sure that he isn’t—that he wasn’t killed in your service. I know what you will find at Tolu, Charles. He’s not my husband now. I see him too clearly. He’s forgotten us all by this time. Oh, you know he has.”
“One has no right to say that.”
“It’s strange how a ship alters one’s judgments,” she said, with a little laugh. “I used to be afraid of you. I couldn’t bear——”
“We were in the way,” he answered.
“I was in a dream. A bad dream. Now it’s over.” She shuddered, turning her head aside.
“No, Olivia. Not that,” he said. “Life isn’t over. I can’t talk to you as I should. My wound makes me stupid. You don’t know men, Olivia. Men are selfish, brutal, greedy. You were never told that. You never saw that side of them. It’s only one side. I’ve no right to talk to you like this; but I’m your guardian here. Now suppose. Men, even lovers, aren’t single-natured, like women. Suppose a man saw a woman in his better moment, saw how beautiful and far above him she was, and loved her for that moment, truly, before falling back to his old greeds.”
“Love is not like that.”
“We’re talking about life, Olivia. The moment of love was worth while to both of them.”
“To myself and to my husband?”
“Yes. If you care to put it that way.”