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Until I know, I shall be in a state
of awful suspense. You'll make inquiries at once, won't you?"
"Did you love your husband, Madame Brandt?" I asked.
She looked at the fire for some time without replying. She stood with
one foot on the fender.
"I thought I did when I married him," she said at last. "I thought I did
when he left me."
"And now?"
She turned her golden eyes full on me. It is a disconcerting trick of
hers at any time, because her eyes are at once wistful and compelling;
but on this occasion it was startling. They held mine for some seconds,
and I caught in them a glimpse of the hieroglyphic of the woman's soul.
Then she turned her head slowly and looked again into the fire.
"Now?" she echoed. "Many things have happened between then and now. If
he is alive and I go to him, I'll try to think again that I love him. It
will be the only way. It will save me from playing hell with my life."
"I am glad you see your relations to Dale in that light," said I.
"I wasn't thinking of Dale," she said calmly.


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