And as for me, if I am not already old, I soon shall be." The woman who had held him so long knew how to tempt him, sacrificing everything in the desperate straits to which she was reduced.

Though he had loved her well, and sinfully, but truly, for so many years, his love had sometimes seemed an unbearable thraldom, to escape from which he would have given his heart piecemeal, though he should lose all the happiness life held for him, for the sake of a momentary freedom.
Possibly, too, she knew that he never longed for that freedom so much as when she had just been most violent and despotic.

She was prepared for the feeble dissent with which he answered her suggestion of separation.
He would be the more easily persuaded to yield and marry Veronica.
"As for your being old," he said, "it is absurd.

It is I who have grown old of late.

But our being friends--" he paused thoughtfully.
"A man is never too old to marry," answered Matilde.