I felt that I was not carrying out my embassy with any great skill. I was distinctly nettled.

“Hang it all, one can’t leave a woman without a bob.”

“Why not?”

“How is she going to live?”

“I’ve supported her for seventeen years. Why shouldn’t she support herself for a change?”

“She can’t.”

“Let her try.”

Of course there were many things I might have answered to this. I might have spoken of the economic position of woman, of the contract, tacit and overt, which a man accepts by his marriage, and of much else; but I felt that there was only one point which really signified.

“Don’t you care for her any more?”

“Not a bit,” he replied.