"We were getting along so nicely, too. What brought this on?" Spencer remarked parenthetically. The triangular footing had been submitted to by Maxwell for so many months without an outbreak that the logic of events seemed to him to demand some special incident as a justification for this sudden revolt.
"One can never tell when a volcano will assert itself. He simply exploded, that's all," she answered. "The wonder is that he has put up with it so long."
"And what is it that he requires?"
"He implored me never to see you again and to go abroad with him for two years. When I declined, he said that he and I must separate."
"A divorce?"
"We did not discuss precise terms. The idea uppermost in his mind was much less complex than that. He invited me to leave the house."
Spencer made an ejaculation of astonishment. "At once?"
"That was his meaning."
"And what did you reply?" Under the spur of her disclosure he had risen. Resting his arm on one of the spiky knobs of the rustic pillar in front of him, he looked down at her inquiringly. Yet his long, athletic, indolent figure still shrank from the conclusion that the status of their affairs had been permanently disturbed.
"I managed not to commit myself at the moment." She paused briefly. "I desired to talk with you first, Harry. I felt that I must know what you would like me to do."