I'm not aware that
we're divorced or separated; for me we're indissolubly united. You are
nearer to me than any human creature, and I'm nearer to you. It may be
a disagreeable proximity; it's one, at any rate, of our own deliberate
making. You don't like to be reminded of that, I know; but I'm
perfectly willing, because-because-" And he paused a moment, looking
as if he had something to say which would be very much to the point.
"Because I think we should accept the consequences of our actions, and
what I value most in life is the honour of a thing!"
He spoke gravely and almost gently; the accent of sarcasm had
dropped out of his tone. It had a gravity which checked his wife's
quick emotion; the resolution with which she had entered the room
found itself caught in a mesh of fine threads. His last words were not
command, they constituted a kind of appeal; and, though she felt
that any expression of respect on his part could only be a
refinement of egotism, they represented something transcendent and
absolute, like the sign of the cross or the flag of one's country.
He spoke in the name of something sacred and precious-the observance
of a magnificent form.
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