"Yes," he nodded. "I don't want to set a wife against her husband. Neither must you. But the truth is, Mr. Rawn is not what a good many think he is--" VII "Do you think that's news to me?" she asked of him, and looked full into his eyes. "Good God, Mrs. Rawn! What do you mean?" "Much what you do!" "But you loved him--you married him!" "Oh, yes, surely. That was some months ago. But you see, there's a distinction between master and superior." "I'm very miserable," was his simple answer. "Things are getting too much confused for me. And now you say you'd never be happy if I left you now, to-night--" "Then why go, so long as we are so confused? Why don't you wait? I've asked you to! Do you expect to settle all this in a half-hour's time, in a passion of anger? Now listen. Although he's my husband, and she's your wife, I don't blame you. I'm only asking you to wait a little. I'm making it personal, Charley!" "How dare you do that, Mrs. Rawn?" "Because I have the right to do it! I don't intend to have you make me more unhappy than I am. I've just told you I'm not happy. I don't know--" she laughed a little amused ripple of laughter--"but I'd have been happier if he had handled you as you did him! I'm not talking just the way I meant to when I came through those doors to stop you. I'm like you--it's all confusing--_I'll_ have to wait, the same as you. There's a lot of things to be figured out! I'm covetous of _everything_ in the world--that _any_ woman ever had--from the Queen of England to Ann Sullivan! Yes, I'm ambitious, I'll admit that. And you've set me thinking--I'm wondering--wondering what really _is_ the best a woman can get out of life." "Mrs. Rawn, you've got success as you understand it, by marrying a middle-aged man. You're young." She shook her head. "It isn't possible," said she frankly, catching his thought. "I'm far enough along to see that!" "You know what Mr. Rawn did when _he_ wished to change--he put away what he had, and reached out for that which he had not. For my own part, I don't see how any woman could be happy with him. He ruined the life of one woman, his wife; of another, his daughter. Now, you tell me he hasn't made an absolutely happy life for yet another woman--yourself. Oh, it's brutal for me to say it, but it's true, and you've just said it's true." "If only it could come to the question of what a woman really wanted--" she resumed, pondering. "That's for each woman to figure out for herself, Mrs. Rawn. I've only said what most American women want. We're living in a wholesome and beautiful age, Mrs. Rawn!" "I thought I was right!" said she suddenly, looking up. "Now I believe I was wrong. Charley!--" VIII "It's in the air," she said, as though to herself, after a time, finding him silent, troubled, pale. "Don't you know, Charley--" She turned to him.