"You were wonderful!" he repeated again, "perfectly noble, and, as I said before, Westboro' did not deserve you."
She did not here, as she had done before, catch him up; on the contrary, after a few moments, she asked him point-blank:
"What then do you advise us, knowing us both, to do?"
He was distinctly disappointed that she should have put the question to him, and gave her time to withdraw it as he asked tentatively: "You really feel that you must ask me, Duchess?"
"Tell me, at all events."
"You are quite sure that you could not go back to your husband?"
After a little pause, she lingeringly said:
"Yes, quite sure. You must know that he will not be the first to break the ice now." Then she pushed: "You would advise my filing my papers for divorce?"
Held in this way pitilessly for a direct challenge, he met her eyes with his own, asking her gently:
"Is there nothing that speaks for Westboro' more distinctly than anything I can say? And more appealingly than anything which you in all your pride feel?"