Page:The Yellow Book - 04.djvu/291

Rh "And in all probability loved."

"Loved! Oh, well, of course, every one has—and besides"she interrupted again.

"Very possibly hated," he went on deliberately.

"We-ell, perhaps, I don't—well."

"Then let's hear all about it," he said encouragingly.

It seemed really unkind to refuse any one in so sad a situation.

"But," she said wavering, "there s such a lot: where shall I begin?"

"I acknowledge that is a difficulty," he said, weighing the matter carefully, "but perhaps if you were to choose one episode."

"One episode, yes," she said, pondering.

"Taken from an interesting period of your life, before you were so old as to"

"I really do think" she burst out angrily. Allan hastened to explain that his estimate of her age, being based entirely upon what he knew of her wit and understanding, and not upon her personal appearance, was most probably exaggerated.

"But what kind of episode?" she pursued reluctantly.

"Oh, well, that I will leave to you," he said politely; and he found his way to the window, still with his face towards her.

"Before I was married or after?" she asked.

"Well, I should say decidedly after. The probability is that you married very young, so that the episodes, if there really were any, came later on. And I should say that, not very long after either, you may have gone away together to the seaside, where the weather was bad and the days were long, and you began to feel rather bored. And then, let us suppose that your husband was called up to town unexpectedly; and some one else, who was young too, and bored too, staying in the same seaside place{{bar|2" {{nop}} {{smallrefs}}