"Of course they were miserable. He couldn't make her happy. Wilton is, in his way, a rather spiritual person, and his wife was anything but. Marriage can be an awful revelation to a nice woman. Sometimes it's a shock to a nice man. Wilton never got over _his_ shock. It left him with a morbid horror of the thing. That's what has prevented him from marrying again." Miss Nethersole drew a perceptible breath before going in deeper. "I've heard people praising his faithfulness to his wife's memory. They little know. He was loyal enough to the poor woman while she lived, but he's giving her away now with a vengeance. Several very nice women would have been more than willing to marry him; but as soon as he knew it----" "Knew it? How could he know it?" "Well, the ladies were very transparent, some of them. And when they weren't there was always some kind person there to make them so. And when he saw through them--he was off. You could see the horror of it coming over him, and his poor terrified eyes protesting--'I'd do anything for you--anything, my dear girl, but that.'" Julia paused, as if on the brink of something still profounder. Evidently she abhorred the plunge, while Freda shrank from the horrible exposure of the shallower waters. "And those women," said Julia, after meditation, "wondered why they lost their friend. They might have kept him if they'd only kept their heads." It was at this point that Freda felt that Julia was trying to drag her in with her. "How awful," said she, "to feel that you'd driven a man away!" "It might be more awful," said Julia, "for him to feel he had to go." "That's it," said Freda. "_Had_ he?" "Well, if he was honorable, what else was there for him to do?" "To stay by those women, and see them through--if he was honorable." "Oh--if they'd have been content with that. But you see, my dear, they all wanted to marry him." "If they did," said Freda, "that shows that they didn't really care." "They cared too much, I'm afraid." "Oh, no. Not enough. If they'd cared enough they'd have got beyond that. However much they wanted it, they'd have given it up, rather than let him go." As she said it she felt a blessed sense of relief. The deeper they went the more the waters covered her. "You'll never get a man," said Julia, "to understand that. If _he_ cares for a woman he won't be put off with anything short of marrying her. So he naturally supposes----" Julia had now gone as deep as she could go. "Yes," said Freda. "It's in the things he naturally supposes that a man goes so wrong."