"If you honestly believe that this young girl is really my mistress," he said, "would it not be decent of you, if it lies within your power, to permit me to regularise my position—and hers?"
"Is it any longer my affair if you and she have publicly damned yourselves?"
"Yet if you do believe me guilty, you can scarcely deny me the chance of atonement, if it is within your power."
She lifted her eyes and coolly inspected him: "And suppose I do not believe you guilty of breaking your marriage vows?" she inquired.
He was silent.
"Am I to understand," she continued, "that you consider it my duty to suffer the inconvenience of divorcing you in order that you may further advertise this woman by marrying her?"
He looked into her close-set eyes; and hope died. She said: "If you care to affix your signature to the agreement which my attorneys have already drawn up, then matters may remain as they are, provided you carry out your part of the contract. If you don't, I shall begin action immediately and I shall name the woman on whose account you seem to entertain such touching anxiety."
"Is that your threat?"
"It is my purpose, dictated by every precept of decency, morality, religion, and the inviolable sanctity of marriage."