“Well, anyhow, I lost my head. I thought she was the most perfect thing under the sun, even if she was a little out of my world. This is a democratic country. I thought that I could just take her, and then—well, you know. That is where I made my mistake. I didn’t think that would prove as serious as it did. I never cared for any other woman but you before and—I’ll be frank—I didn’t know whether I wanted to marry you. I thought I didn’t want to marry any woman. I said to myself that I could just take Jennie, and then, after a while, when things had quieted down some, we could separate. She would be well provided for. I wouldn’t care very much. She wouldn’t care. You understand.” “Yes, I understand,” replied his confessor. “Well, you see, Letty, it hasn’t worked out that way. She’s a woman of a curious temperament. She possesses a world of feeling and emotion. She’s not educated in the sense in which we understand that word, but she has natural refinement and tact. She’s a good housekeeper. She’s an ideal mother. She’s the most affectionate creature under the sun. Her devotion to her mother and father was beyond words. Her love for her daughter—she’s hers, not mine—is perfect. She hasn’t any of the graces of the smart society woman. She isn’t quick at repartee. She can’t join in any rapid-fire conversation. She thinks rather slowly, I imagine. Some of her big thoughts never come to the surface at all, but you can feel that she is thinking and that she is feeling.” “You pay her a lovely tribute, Lester,” said Letty. “I ought to,” he replied. “She’s a good woman, Letty; but, for all that I have said, I sometimes think that it’s only sympathy that’s holding me.” “Don’t be too sure,” she said warningly. “Yes, but I’ve gone through with a great deal. The thing for me to have done was to have married her in the first place. There have been so many entanglements since, so much rowing and discussion, that I’ve rather lost my bearings. This will of father’s complicates matters. I stand to lose eight hundred thousand if I marry her—really, a great deal more, now that the company has been organized into a trust. I might better say two millions. If I don’t marry her, I lose everything outright in about two more years. Of course, I might pretend that I have separated from her, but I don’t care to lie. I can’t work it out that way without hurting her feelings, and she’s been the soul of devotion. Right down in my heart, at this minute, I don’t know whether I want to give her up. Honestly, I don’t know what the devil to do.” Lester looked, lit a cigar in a far-off, speculative fashion, and looked out of the window.