"But I was poor!" Forbes reiterated, with a knell-like persistence.
"That was Fate's fault, not mine," said Persis, in all solemnity. "But haven't I been honest with you? You declared that you loved me; I confessed that I loved you."
"Was it honest, then, not to give me your heart?"
"My whole heart has always been yours for the asking—and still is."
Forbes recoiled with a sudden: "What are you saying? You have a husband now!"
"What does that prove?" was Persis' grim reply. "I don't owe him anything in the inside of my heart. He didn't buy that, thank God! Before the world, I owe him everything, and I should be the first to abhor any open indiscretion, for my ten commandments are condensed to two: 'Don't be indiscreet!' and 'Beware of what people will say!' What more could a husband ask?"
Forbes tossed his hands in despair. He gave her up. She and her creed were beyond his understanding. "A fine code, that!"
"It is the morality of half the world, Harvey, rich or poor, city or country," Persis declared. "The crime consists in being found out."
"Do you realize what you are saying?" Forbes demanded, eager to shield her from her own blasphemies. But she ran on unheedingly.
"Even I have a heart; and why should I play the hypocrite before you of all men? Before Willie Enslee? Yes; he is my husband. Before the gossipy world? Yes; it is the one duty I feel I owe that man. Ours was no marriage for love."