voice dropped to the tender
persuasive note which had always affected her like a spell.

'My dear--my very dearest.... We made a great mistake once. Let us
forget that. Death has opened the gate of freedom--for me, at
least--and I can only feel remorseful thankfulness. We have again a
chance of happiness. We will not throw it away a second time.'

'You seem to forget that if you are free I am married.'

'What a marriage? Call it a mad adventure.'

'That may be,' she said bitterly. 'But it doesn't alter the fact that I
did care very much for my husband.' She brought out the last words with
difficulty.

'DID care. You put it in the past tense. You don't care for him any
longer. It would be astonishing if you did. One has only to see you
together.... Oh, Biddy, it was so like you to rush off to the other
side of the world, and ruin your life for the sake of some strange
impracticable idea! I can follow it all....'

'You are mistaken,' she put in.

'I think not. You married in a fit of revulsion against the conditions
in which you were living--the hollow shams of an effete
civilisation--that's the correct phrase, isn't it? And--well, perhaps
there was another reason for the revulsion.... And you thought you had
found the remedy for it all. Oh! I admit that he is very good looking,
and, of course, he worshipped you--until he had you secure, and then he
reverted to the ways of his kind. "Nature's gentlemen" usually do....'

'Be silent, Will,' she exclaimed vehemently. 'You don't understand.'

'My dear, your very anger tells me that I do understand. Why! naturally
your imagination was set on fire. The Bush was painted to you in its
most glowing colours. No doubt, as you said, it's a Garden of Eden in
good seasons. Wonderful vegetation, glorious liberty--no galling
conventions--vast spaces--romance--and the will o' the wisp wealth of
the Wild. Confess now ... are not my guesses correct?'

'Yes--partly.' She spoke with reluctance. 'But I remember that YOU used
to talk to me about the joys of the Wild,' she added with sharp irony.

'Oh, yes, I know it all. I've been there myself. And it's only when El
Dorado proves a delusion that one begins to hanker--I did before I met
you--for the advantages of civilised existence.'

'Well, you have secured those. Why not go and enjoy them as I'm asking
you to do.'

'They have no value for me, unless I may share them with you. Bridget,
I can give you everything now that you onc