'No; it is a different thing. You then offer that which belongs to another.'
Lamont looked long into her serious eyes. 'Ma mie,' he said tenderly, 'all of your age and sex speak so. They mean it, when they give the thought utterance, yet in a short time they will gladly transfer affection, and call it again love.'
'I do not understand the world ways. I do not wish to, if such is custom. Such women cannot possess hearts, or know truth.'
'It is nothing,' he said carelessly. 'Husbands tire of wives, wives desert husbands. It happens every day.'
'But what comes after that?'
'Often they separate.'
Menotah shuddered, while her face grew very grave. 'When you speak such words, a cold pain passes over me. It makes me lonely and unhappy. But tell me more; when the wife is deserted for another woman, what does she do?'
Lamont shrugged his shoulders and laughed. 'Takes somebody else,' he said lightly.
Yet he was astonished at her manner of receiving his words. She pushed him away with a sudden impulse, while her bosom heaved and the bright eyes flashed.
'Surely she would seek after vengeance? She would punish him?'