It seemed she could not help herself.

"I will tell you," she said at last.
"But you will be kind to her?
You will remember how young she is, and that--that you drove her to it ?" Her voice was piteous, her resistance was dead.
"I shall remember," he said very quietly, "one thing only." "Yes ?" she murmured.

"Yes ?" "That she is my wife," he said, in the same level tone.

"Now--answer me." And because there was no longer any alternative course, she yielded.
Had he shown himself a raging demon she could have resisted him, and rejoiced in it.

But this man, with his rigid self-control, his unswerving resolution, his deadly directness, dominated her irresistibly.
Without argument he had changed her point of view.