"I think you cannot help yourself," answers Lady Jean coolly. "I mean what I have said. Now--go. I don't want to create further scandal, and your presence here at this time is somewhat singular, to say the least." "Jean, do not drive me mad!" cried Sir Francis desperately. "You are clever, keen of wit. Surely you can devise some plan by which we can defeat her? It is humiliating, unbearable to be baffled like this." "She has seen through our scheme; she is prepared," scoffs Lady Jean. "Don't praise me for keen wits or cleverness, _mon ami_; you can admire them more safely as exemplified by your wife! Now--will you go?" "Not unless you tell me when I am to see you again." "Never, never, never!" almost screams Lady Jean. "Is that enough? _Never again_, I swear, unless your wife is--to all intents and appearances--what she has deemed me! As that will never be, I think you must resign yourself as philosophically as possible to an eternal parting." "How heartless you are!" cries Sir Francis. "You cannot mean it. We might meet sometimes. There is no kind of----" "Oh, fool--dolt!" cries Lady Jean, in a fury. "Have I not said enough? It is to you I owe this insult. You can pay the penalty of it. You have nothing to do now but put up with your bargain, or--wait for freedom!" "Freedom," he mutters, vaguely and stupidly. "Do you mean that I should try for a divorce?" She opens the door and pushes him aside. "I have said all that is necessary. It is for you to act!" "Act," he says. For a moment he hesitates, then goes forward and firmly closes the door. "I will _not_ go till I have said my say. I warned Lauraine that if she did this I would proceed to extremities. I shall do so. She has defied me for the first time in her life. Well, she shall suffer for it. If you leave my roof she leaves it too. She has chosen to insult you; let her have her share of the disgrace." Lady Jean looks at him as if bewildered. "I think you know very well what I mean," he says gloomily. "You were the first to counsel it." "But the scandal, the disgrace," cries Lady Jean hurriedly. "And then all this will leak out, and it will look like a trumped-up case, done to shield yourself. And my name---- No, no, I cannot have it. She is right. Let her have her triumph; it won't last long. There are other ways to punish her besides this. Leave it to me. I must be calm. I must think. No; _that_ idea is ridiculous. You may drag her name through the dirt, but you drag your own also, and she can always bring up--this. And, though I hate her, I know she is a good woman. She is cold; that is her safeguard, for she never loved you. But all the same she will not forfeit her own self-respect. It is only another sort of pride, but it is _safe_." "And yet you always said--" begins Sir Francis.