Page:Playinthreexiles00joycrich.djvu/92

82

You see, I am more honest than you thought.

I wish you had not thought of her now—whoever she was, or is.

[Easily.] She was and is the wife of a stockbroker.

[Turning.] You know him?

Intimately.

[Moving his chair a little closer.] May I ask you a question?

You may.

[With some hesitation.] Has it never happened to you in these years—I mean when you were away from her, perhaps, or travelling—to betray her with another. Betray her, I mean, not in love. Carnally, I mean Has that never happened?

It has.

And what did you do?

[As before.] I remember the first time. I came home. It was night. My house was silent. My little