"My dear, my dear!" he whispered. "O, my dear!"
Muriel, broken-hearted, wept hysterically.
Stainton stroked her blue-black hair. All women were like this, he reflected; it was a law of nature. It was the same law that, in the lower animals, first drove the female to repulse the male and then submit to him. In mankind it began by making the woman dread the accomplishment of her natural destiny and ended by awakening the maternal instinct, seemingly so at variance with its preceding action.
Suddenly Muriel looked up and saw his expression. Hers grew wild.
"You—did you know it would be?" she stammered.
"There, there!" said Stainton, stroking her hair.
She drew herself free.
"You did know!"
Stainton prepared to yield to the natural law.
"Of course, I didn't know, dear. How could I be certain?"