"Yes!"
"And you prefer, once for all, to be strangers rather than friends?"
"Strangers don't squabble!"
"Very well, then, James," she said with a quiet smile, "strangers let it be. I daresay it's better so, after all. I shouldn't wonder if you found me quite as good and thorough a stranger, from now on, as you could desire. It was foolish of me to talk to you as I did."
"No, no—don't get blaming yourself. It's such a cheap form of satisfaction."
She stood looking at him a moment with coldly glittering eyes.
"It's quite true," she repeated; "I was a fool. I was a fool to imagine that you and I could have anything in common. Ever. Well, nothing can very well put us farther apart than we are now. There's a certain comfort in that, perhaps."
"There is."
"At last we agree. Husbands and wives should always agree. Good-night, James."
"Good-night,"