Page:HG Wells--secret places of the heart.djvu/267

Rh Some day—somewhere—we two will certainly meet again.”

“Even you have to force circumstances a little,” said Sir Richmond.

“We shall meet,” she said, “without doing that.”

“But where?” he asked unanswered....

“Meetings and partings,” she said. “Women will be used to seeing their lovers go away. Even to seeing them go away to other women who have borne them children and who have a closer claim on them.”

“No one——” began Sir Richmond, startled.

“But I don’t mind very much. It’s how things are. If I were a perfectly civilized woman I shouldn’t mind at all. If men and women are not to be tied to each other there must needs be such things as this.”

“But you,” said Sir Richmond. “I at any rate am not like that. I cannot bear the thought that you——”

“You need not bear it, my dear. I was just trying to imagine this world that is to be. Women I think are different from men—in their jealousy. Men are jealous of the other man; women are jealous for their man—and careless about the other woman. What I love in you I am sure about. My mind was empty when it came to you and now it is full to overflowing. I shall feel you moving about