"Gracie, will you answer or not?"
"Oh, darling! you have worried me into a nervous chill. I am cold as ice," and to prove the truth of her words she pressed two icy little hands upon his cheek, and for the first time in his life he pushed his fairy away from him.
"You must not trifle with me, Grace."
"You still insist on it, Paul?"
"I still insist on it."
"At the risk of your own unhappiness?"
"Yes."
She looked at him sadly as she leaned across the crib near him, but not touching him.
"Paul," she ventured, suddenly, "even supposing that I had loved another before I ever met you, what difference can that make to you? I love you truly now."
"So much difference, my wife, that I think I could never again be happy if I knew you had ever loved another than myself; but I cannot bear this suspense. I ask you nothing about other men. I only ask you, did you ever love Bruce Conway?"