If I were married to you I could endure to be beaten by you and perhaps love you still, but the moment I was compelled to confess your inferiority to some other woman's husband I should hate you, and in the end drag both of us down to miserable graves." "But let me explain this." "It would be a waste of time," she answered coldly.

"It is sufficient for me to know that you are convicted by general opinion of having failed where a number of commonplace fellows succeeded.

You, yourself, admit the justice of this verdict by tame submission to it, making no effort to retrieve your reputation.

I can not understand how this could be so if you had any of the qualities that I fondly imagined you possessed in a high degree.

But this interview is being protracted to a painful extent.