“One word, Ralph,” she said, suddenly stopping short. “I feel that with you I shall be violent and exacting. Is there another woman in your life?”
“Not one,” he said firmly.
“A lie already!” she said bitterly.
“A lie?”
“What about Clarice d’Etigues? You used to meet her in the fields. You were seen together.”
He was a trifle ruffled, and he said sharply: “That’s an old story.... The merest flirtation.”
“You swear it?”
“I swear it.”
“All the better,” she said with a somber air. “All the better for her. And let her never come between us! If she does——”
He drew her along, protesting: “I love you only, Josine! I have never loved anyone but you. My life begins to-day.”