"--that a man should be--an inhuman beast--if he were jealous--and
desperate. You can sympathize with these things?"
She drew a long breath, and threw away the cigarette she had been
holding suspended in her small fingers.
"I don't know anything about them."
"Because," he hesitated, "your own life has been so happy?"
She evaded him. "Don't you think that jealousy will soon be as dead
as--saying your prayers and going to church? I never meet anybody that
cares enough--to be jealous."
She spoke first with passionate force, then with contempt, glancing
across the room at Madeleine Alcot. Cliffe saw the look, and remembered
that Mrs. Alcot's husband, a distinguished treasury official, had been
for years the intimate friend of a very noble and beautiful woman,
herself unhappily married. There was no scandal in the matter, though
much talk. Mrs. Alcot meanwhile had her own affairs; her husband and she
were apparently on friendly terms; only neither ever spoke of the other;
and their relations remained a mystery.
Cliffe bent over to Kitty.
"And yet you said you could understand?--such things didn't seem strange
to you.
Pages:
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240