"Will you talk for ever?" she said to him.
"Take the core then. I am going to rend my bonds as I would rend flax. I have appealed to the Church; I have poured out gold."
"To the point, messire."
"I shall divorce my wife."
He threw his head back, and challenged the world in her one person. Her good favour was more to him than the patronage of Pope or King. It was in his mind that she should believe the worst of him from the beginning, so that in some later season he might not emulate Lucifer, toppled out of the heaven of her heart. She should have the truth from the first, and build her opinion of him on no fanciful basis. Even in this justice to the more sinister side of his surroundings, he was an idealist, thorough and enthusiastic.
"So you must understand, madame, that I am not without blemishes, not without things that I myself would rather see otherwise. With me it is a question of going to hell for a woman, or getting rid of her. Being an egotist, I choose the latter alternative."
Yeoland still evaded his eyes.
"And the woman loves you?"
"Not an atom; she only cares to be called the Lady of Gambrevault, Signoress of Avalon, the first dame in the south."
"Why do you tell me this?"