Why shouldn't she come back to me?
It's the right thing, the lawful thing.

It makes no scandal, no disturbance.

If it's disagreeable to her--but why should it be?
I'm not a leper, and she--she's no longer in love!' Why should he be put to the shifts and the sordid disgraces and the lurking defeats of the Divorce Court, when there she was like an empty house only waiting to be retaken into use and possession by him who legally owned her?
To one so secretive as Soames the thought of reentry into quiet possession of his own property with nothing given away to the world was intensely alluring.

'No,' he mused, 'I'm glad I went to see that girl.

I know now what I want most.