"English! Then it must have been something bad!"
"No, it wasn't! It was all a mistake. Mr. Van Adam was terribly jealous. You have never seen him, Daisy. But he is one of those men with a temperament. Never marry a man with a temperament—that's to say, if he loves you. And Huskinson did love me."
She drooped pensively. But Mrs. Verulam's severity of expression increased.
"A temperament!" she said. "Now, Chloe, please don't abuse a man for not being deformed. I'm afraid you've done something dreadful."
"I haven't. I've done nothing. But I wouldn't defend the case. I was too proud. Huskinson——"
"Why is your husband's name Huskinson?"
"Ah! that's one of the things I've often and often wondered. It does seem so unnecessary. I feel that, too."
She checked the natural tendency to muse created by this strange problem, and went on:
"At first we were only pleasantly unhappy together. I liked his fury, and when he was good-tempered I bitterly resented it, and tried to check it by every means in my power. I generally succeeded in doing so. We women can do these things, you know, Daisy; and that's something."
"Yes."