Page:The Siege of London, The Pension Beaurepas, and The Point of View (Boston, James R. Osgood & Co., 1883).djvu/136

126 one can do anything—they are only waiting to see if he 'll do it. I told you in Paris you could help me, and it's just as true now. Say a good word for me, for God's sake! You have n't lifted your little finger, or I should know it by this time. It will just make the difference. Or if your sister would come and see me, I should be all right. Women are pitiless, pitiless, and you are pitiless too. It is n't that she 's anything so great, most of my friends are better than that! but she 's the one woman who knows, and people know that she knows. He knows that she knows, and he knows she does n't come. So she kills me—she kills me! I understand perfectly what he wants—I shall do everything, be anything, I shall be the most perfect wife. The old woman will adore me when she knows me—it 's too stupid of her not to see. Everything in the past is over; it has all fallen away from me; it 's the life of another woman. This was what I wanted; I knew I should find it some day. What could I do in those horrible places? I had to take what I could. But now I 've got a nice country. I want you to do me justice; you have never done me justice; that 's what I sent for you for."

Littlemore suddenly ceased to be bored; but a variety of feelings had taken the place of a single one. It was impossible not to be touched; she really meant what she said. People don't change their nature; but they change their desires, their ideal, their effort. This incoherent and passionate