She rose, the tears at an end, facing him calmly, even with a new sense of power, which struck profoundly into his masculine vanity.
"I had to know that I was really free—that you had no more power over me—that I could go on with my life," she said simply.
It was too monstrous, he could not credit it.
"And you brought me here for that?" he said slowly.
"Yes."
"Good heavens," he cried, revolted and shocked, "you—you could do—such a thing, such an indefensible, outrageous thing as this. That is too much, I can not understand—"
"I did it," she said quietly, "because I want to be a good wife."
"Then it was not because you wished to get me back?" he cried, too amazed not to be indiscreet.
"Why, no—of course not!"
"It is incredible!" he said stupidly aghast at her candor.