Page:Stella Dallas, a novel (IA stelladallasnove00prou).pdf/177

Rh "And what's that?"

"Why, you are to bring suit against Mr. Dallas for desertion. He will not contest the grounds of your suit, and the divorce will be granted without disagreeable controversy."

"I don't want a divorce," said Stella.

"Really?" Mr. Morley Smith raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Surely, you want your separation of seven years' standing legalized, do you not, and enjoy the advantages thereof?"

"I don't want a divorce," Stella repeated.

"The word has an unpleasant sound for some women, I know," Mr. Smith smiled. "It shouldn't. Let me explain. Perhaps you haven't thought in detail just what the benefits would be of a settlement of the relations existing between you and Mr. Dallas—just what hardships you are inflicting upon yourself, unnecessarily, in allowing them to continue in their present state."

And in the next ten minutes he laid out before Stella, as attractively as he knew how, all the fine arguments, moral, social, and financial, for her consideration, that he possessed.

But his display apparently made no impression upon Stella. For when he had finished all she said was, just as if she hadn't been listening, "I don't want a divorce, and," she added, "what's more I don't intend to have one."

Mr. Morley Smith frowned and shrugged. Then, balancing the tips of his elbows on the arms of his chair, and the tips of the fingers of his left hand nicely against the tips of the fingers of his right, he said, "That's a pity."