He nodded at her and smiled. She shrank, for she saw in his nod and his
smile that suggestion of knowing all about everything and everybody, and
thinking the worst, which had chilled her so often. Even in their short
married life it had chilled those confidences which she would gladly have
poured out before him, if he had been a man with an open soul. Had there
been joined to his intellect and temperament a heart capable of true
convictions and abiding love, what a man he might have been! But his
intellect was superficial, and his temperament was dangerous, because
there were not the experiences of a soul of truth to give the deeper hold
upon the meaning of life. She shrank now, as, with a little laugh and
glancing suggestively at the despatch-box, he said:
"And what do you think of it all?"
She felt as though something was crushing her heart within its grasp, and
her eyes took on a new look of pain. "I did not read the papers," she
answered quietly.
"I saw them in your fingers. What creatures women are--so dishonourable
in little things," he said ironically.
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