“Perhaps,” said Olivia. (She wanted to say, “What difference does the book make to any one in the world? Who cares whether it is written or not?”) She knew that she must keep up her deceit, so she said, “You needn’t worry, because Sabine is going away to-morrow and Jean will go with her.” She sighed. “After that your life won’t be disturbed any longer. Nothing in the least unusual is likely to happen.”
“And there’s this other thing,” he said, “this disloyalty of yours to me and to all the family.”
Stiffening slightly, she asked, “What can you mean by that?”
“You know what I mean.”
She saw that he was putting himself in the position of a wronged husband, assuming a martyrdom of the sort which Aunt Cassie practised so effectively. He meant to be a patient, well-meaning husband and to place her in the position of a shameful woman; and slowly, with a slow, heavy anger, she resolved to circumvent his trick.
“I think, Anson, that you’re talking nonsense. I haven’t been disloyal to any one. Your father will tell you that.”
“My father was always weak where women are concerned, and now he’s beginning to grow childish. He’s so old that he’s beginning to forgive and condone anything.” And then after a silence he said, “This O’Hara. I’m not such a fool as you think, Olivia.”
For a long time neither of them said anything, and in the end it was Olivia who spoke, striking straight into the heart of the question. She said, “Anson, would you consider letting me divorce you?”
The effect upon him was alarming. His face turned gray, and the long, thin, oversensitive hands began to tremble. She saw that she had touched him on the rawest of places, upon his immense sense of pride and dignity. It would be unbearable for him to believe that she would want to be rid of him in order to go to another man, especially to a man whom he professed to hold in contempt, a man who had the qualities which he himself did not possess. He could only see the request as a humiliation of his own precious dignity.
He managed to grin, trying to turn the request to mockery, and said, “Have you lost your mind?”