But you would have made my life such
that some day one or both of us would have died suddenly. For"--she
looked him with a hot clearness in the eyes--"for there is just so much
that a woman can bear. I wish this talk had not come now, but, since
it has come, it is better to speak plainly. You see, you misunderstand.
A heathen has a heart as another--has a life to be spoiled or made happy
as another. Had there been one honest passion in your treatment of me--
in your marrying me--there would be something on which to base mutual
respect, which is more or less necessary when one is expected to love.
But--but I will not speak more of it, for it chokes me, the insult to me,
not as I was, but as I am. Then it would probably have driven me mad,
if I had known; now it eats into my life like rust."
He made a motion as if to take her hands, but lifting them away quietly
she said: "You forget that there are others present, as well as the fact
that we can talk better without demonstration.
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