"Do you mean—my marrying Oswald?" she asked.
"Yes. Why did you do such a thing?"
She bent her head, considering the question for a while in silence. Then she said calmly:
"There's one reason why I did it that I can't tell you. I promised him not to. Another reason was that he was very much in love with me. I don't know exactly what it is that I feel for him—but he does fascinate me. He always did, somehow. Even as a boy——"
"You didn't know him as a boy!"
"No. But I saw him once. And I realize now that I was even then vaguely conscious of an odd interest in him. And that time at Cambridge, too. He had that same, indefinable attraction for me——"
"You are in love with him then!"
"I don't know. Jim, I don't think it is love. I don't think I know what love really is. So, knowing this, but being grateful to him, and deeply sorry——"
"Why?"
"I can't tell you why. Perhaps I'll tell you sometime. But I was very grateful and sorry and—and more or less moved—fascinated. It's funny; there are things I don't like about Oswald, and still I can't keep away from him.... Well, so everything seemed to combine to make me try it——"