"No."
"Why then——"
"Do you remember my saying I was sorry for him—wanted to mother him?"
"You married him for that?"
"That was what I could bring him. I married him because I wanted to begin living. When he asked me, I hesitated; it seemed such madness. It was your words which spurred me on: 'Come, child, let's be about your living.' I am about it now, Mr. Christiansen."
"Child, child, what have you done? Does he love you?"
"No; he wanted me for protection against other women."
"Beast!"
"No, no. We started in, open-eyed, neither of us sentimentalizing the situation. If you examine motives, his were as good as mine."