'If she tire him,' she thought, 'he will very soon put her aside.'
But he did not do so.
Once she said to him, with a little irony, 'You do not dislike Olga so very much now?' and to her surprise he coloured and answered quickly, 'I am not sure that I do not hate her.'
'She certainly does not hate you,' said Wanda, a little contemptuously.
'Who knows?' he said gloomily; 'who could ever be sure of anything with a woman like that?'
'Mutability has a charm for some persons,' said his wife, with an irritation for which she despised herself.
'Not for me,' said Sabran, quickly. 'My opinion of Madame Olga is precisely what it has always been.'
'Are you very sincere to her, then?' said Wanda, and as she spoke, regretted it. What was Olga Brancka that she should for a moment bring any shadow of dissension between them?
'Sincere!' he echoed, with a certain embarrassment. 'Who would she expect to be so? I told you once before that you pay her in a coin of which she could not decipher the superscription!'
Wanda smiled, but she was pained by his tone. 'You are not the first man, I suppose, who amuses himself with what he despises,' she answered. 'But I do not think it is a very noble sport, or a very healthy one. Forgive me, dear, if I seem to preach to you.'