Ere the honeymoon was over she found that her husband, tied by his political engagements and by his eternal duties at the House, was unable to accompany her out of an evening; hence from the very first they had drifted apart, until, eight months later, the terrible affliction of blindness fell upon him.
For a time this drew her back to him.

She was his constant and dutiful companion everywhere, leading him hither and thither, and attending to his wants; but very soon the tie bored her, and the attractions of society once again proved too great.

Hence for the past nine years--Gabrielle being at school, first at Eastbourne and afterwards at Amiens--she had amused herself and left her husband to his dry-as-dust hobbies and the loneliness of his black and sunless world.
The man who had just put that curious question to her was perhaps her closest friend.

To her he owed everything, though the world was in ignorance of the fact.

That they were friends everybody knew.