"I hope I need not tell you, in words, how intensely I sympathise with you."
"Thank you, I would rather you didn't; I know."
"We will speak of such matters later. In the meantime, obviously, what you want is a friend; as I guessed. As a friend, let me assure you that your position is not by any means so hopeless as you appear to imagine."
"Not with my husband coming out of prison to-morrow? You don't know him."
"If you can do nothing else, you can keep him at arm's length."
"How do you mean?"
"You have money, he hasn't. You can at least place yourself in a position in which he can't get at you."
"Can't he compel me to give him money?"
"Emphatically, no. He has no claim to a penny of yours, not to a farthing. The marriage laws are still quite capable of being improved, but one crying injustice they have abolished. What a woman has is her own, and hers only, be she married or single. If Mr Champion wants money he will have to earn it. He has not a scintilla of right to any of yours, or anything that is yours. So, at anyrate, you should have no difficulty in placing yourself beyond his reach. But there is something more. You should experience no trouble in freeing yourself from him altogether. There is such a place as the divorce court. Plainly, it would be easy to show cruelty, and probably something else as well."
"I don't know. I knew nothing of what he did, and cared nothing, so long as he left me alone."