'
'There should have been some touch of chivalry if not of love to
make you feel that a second passion should have been postponed for
a year or two. You could wait without growing old. You might have
allowed yourself a little space to dwell--I was going to say on the
sweetness of your memories. But they were not sweet, Frank, they
were not sweet to you.'
'These rebukes, Mabel, will rob them of their sweetness,--for a
time.'
'It is gone; all gone,' she said, shaking her head,--'gone from me
because I have been so easily deserted; gone from you because the
change has been so easy to you. How long was it, Frank, after you
had left me before you were basking happily in the smiles of Lady
Mary Palliser?'
'It was not very long, as months go.'
'Say days, Frank.'
'I have to defend myself, and I will do so with truth. It was not
very long,--as months go; but why should it have been less long,
whether for months or days? I had to cure myself of a wound.'
'To put plaster on a scratch, Frank.'
'And the sooner a man can do that the more manly he is.
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