"Does it? Sorry! But it's Jim's own fault. Heaps of other girls would jump at him if he was free. And if I'm bored, what's the use of trying to keep me? What on earth can we do about it, either of us? You can't take out an insurance against boredom." "But why should you be bored? With everything on earth..." Pauline waved a hand at the circumjacent luxuries. "Well; that's it, I suppose. Always the same old everything!" The mother-in-law softened her voice to murmur temptingly: "Of course, if it's this house you're tired of... Nona told me something about your wanting to redecorate some of the rooms; and I can understand, for instance, that this one..." "Oh, this is the only one I don't utterly loathe. But I'm not divorcing Jim on account of the house," Lita answered, with a faint smile which seemed perverse to Pauline. "Then what is the reason? I don't understand." "I'm not much good at reasons. I want a new deal, that's all." Pauline struggled against her rising indignation. To sit and hear this chit of a Cliffe girl speak of husband and home as if it were a matter of course to discard them like last year's fashions! But she was determined not to allow her feelings to master her. "If you had only yourself to think of, what should you do?" she asked. "Do? Be myself, I suppose! I can't be, here. I'm a sort of all-round fake. I--" "We none of us want you to be that--Jim least of all. He wants you to feel perfectly free to express your personality." "Here--in this house?" Her contemptuous gesture seemed to tumble it down like a pack of cards. "And looking at him across the dinner-table every night of my life?" Pauline paused; then she said gently: "And can you face giving up your baby?" "Baby? Why should I? You don't suppose I'd ever give up my baby?" "Then you mean to ask Jim to give up his wife and child, and to assume all the blame as well?" "Oh, dear, no. Where's the blame? I don't see any! All I want is a new deal," repeated Lita doggedly. "My dear, I'm sure you don't know what you're saying. Your husband has the misfortune to be passionately in love with you. The divorce you talk of so lightly would nearly kill him. Even if he doesn't interest you any longer, he did once. Oughtn't you to take that into account?" Lita seemed to ponder. Then she said: "But oughtn't he to take into account that he doesn't interest me any longer?"