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." He was about to speak, but she stopped him.

"No, wait," she said; "for I want to say a little more.

I was only an Indian girl, but you must remember that I had also in my veins good white blood, Scotch blood.
Perhaps it was that which drew me to you then--for Lali the Indian girl loved you.