"Inevitable that you should have. Not that it makes any particular difference, but you're still married, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Any prospects of change?"
"Prospects? No!"
"Ah, well; I haven't an idea that Pat would marry you anyway. She appears to regard you as rather an elderly person, quite delightful to play with, but belonging to another world. Her infatuation will probably die out."
"Give me credit for being decent enough to hope and know that it will."
"Yet there is no certainty about it. Your appeal to her senses may be temporary, doubtless is. But you have taken hold upon her mind to a degree which she herself does not appreciate, and that is a more profound and lasting influence. I wonder if you did it deliberately."
"No. Yes. I don't know whether I did or not. It may have been at the back of my brain all the time."
"That sounds more like Pat's honesty than your own diplomatic way of looking at things. It would be quite incredible that she has exerted a counter-influence upon you."
"Why incredible, since I love her?" was the quiet reply.