Surely no woman's love could stand before that appalling revelation?
But no; what other women would do he would not undertake to say; _she_ would only look at him with her innocent eyes, reiterating "It makes no difference." Would he have cared more if she had cared less?
On the whole--no.

And what if she had been a woman of a higher, austerer type?
That woman would have repelled him, thrown him back upon himself.

She had drawn him by her very foolishness.

He had been brought back to her, again and again, by the certainty of her unreasoning affection.

By its purity also.