“She heard me out without a murmur, which showed her sense; for liking the girl sincerely, I didn’t mince matters with her, but spoke plainly for her good.  The result was, she told me her story much as I have told it to you.

“‘It’s a funny tale,’ says I when she’d finished, ’though maybe you yourself don’t see the humour of it.’

“‘Yes, I do,’ was her answer.  ‘But there’s a serious side to it also,’ says she, ‘and that interests me more.’

“‘You’re sure you’re not making a mistake?’ I suggested.

“‘He’s been in my thoughts too much for me to forget him,’ she replied.  ‘Besides, he’s told me his name and all about himself.’

“‘Not quite all,’ says I.

“‘No, and that’s why I feel hard toward him,’ answers she.

“‘Now you listen to me,’ says I.  ’This is a very pretty comedy, and the way you’ve played it does you credit up till now.  Don’t you run it on too long, and turn it into a problem play.’

“‘How d’ye mean?’ says she.

“‘A man’s a man,’ says I; ’anyhow he’s one.  He fell in love with you six years ago when you were only a child, and now you’re a woman he’s fallen in love with you again.  If that don’t convince you of his constancy, nothing will.  You stop there.  Don’t you try to find out any more.’

“’I mean to find out one thing, answers she:  ’whether he’s a man—­or a cad.’

“‘That’s a severe remark,’ says I, ‘to make about your own husband.’

“‘What am I to think?’ says she.  ’He fooled me into loving him when, as you say, I was only a child.  Do you think I haven’t suffered all these years?  It’s the girl that cries her eyes out for her lover; we learn to take ’em for what they’re worth later on.’

“‘But he’s in love with you still,’ I says.  I knew what was in her mind, but I wanted to lead her away from it if I could.

“‘That’s a lie,’ says she, ‘and you know it.’  She wasn’t choosing her words; she was feeling, if you understand.  ’He’s in love with a pretty waitress that he met for the first time a fortnight ago.’

“‘That’s because she reminds him of you,’ I replied, ’or because you remind him of her, whichever you prefer.  It shows you’re the sort of woman he’ll always be falling in love with.’

“She laughed at that, but the next moment she was serious again.  ’A man’s got to fall out of love before he falls into it again,’ she replied.  ‘I want a man that’ll stop there.  Besides,’ she goes on, ’a woman isn’t always young and pretty:  we’ve got to remember that.  We want something else in a husband besides eyes.’

“‘You seem to know a lot about it,’ says I.

“‘I’ve thought a lot about it,’ says she.

“‘What sort of husband do you want?’ says I.

“‘I want a man of honour,’ says she.

“That was sense.  One don’t often find a girl her age talking it, but her life had made her older than she looked.  All I could find to say was that he appeared to be an honest chap, and maybe was one.