Page:Confidence (London, Macmillan & Co., 1921).djvu/261

 accumulating in his heart under a sense of his estrangement from Blanche. He is too proud to attribute his feelings to that cause, even to himself; but he wanted to cry out and say he was hurt, to demand justice for a wrong; and the revelation of the state of things between you and me—which of course strikes him as incongruous—we must allow largely for that—came to him as a sudden opportunity. No, no," the girl went on, with a generous ardour in her face, following further the train of her argument, which she appeared to find extremely attractive, "I know what you are going to say, and I deny it. I am not fanciful, nor sophistical, nor irrational, and I know perfectly what I am about. Men are so stupid; it's only women that have real discernment. Leave me alone, and I shall do something. Blanche is silly, yes, very silly; but she is not so bad as her husband accused her of being, in those dreadful words which he will live to repent of. She is wise enough to care for him, greatly, at bottom, and to feel her little heart filled with rage and shame that he doesn't appear to care for her. If he would take her a little more seriously—it's an immense pity he married her because she is silly!—she would be flattered by it, and she would try and deserve it. No, no, no! she doesn't, in reality, care a straw for Captain Lovelock, I assure you, I promise you, she doesn't. A woman can tell. She is in danger, possibly, and if her present situation, as regards her husband, lasts, she might do something as horrid as he said. But she would do it out of spite—not out of affection for the Captain, who must be got immediately out of the way. She only keeps him to torment her husband and make Gordon come back to her. She would drop him for ever, to-morrow." Angela paused a moment, reflecting, with a kindled eye. "And she shall!"

Bernard looked incredulous. 253