"
At that bitter retort, he kept silence a long time, now and then heaving
a long sigh. His words kept sounding in her heart: "The soul, not the
body, is faithful." Was he, after all, more faithful to her than she had
ever been, could ever be--who did not love, had never loved him? What
right had she to talk, who had married him out of vanity, out of--what?
And suddenly he said:
"Gyp! Forgive!"
She uttered a sigh, and turned away her face.
He bent down against the eider-down. She could hear him drawing long,
sobbing breaths, and, in the midst of her lassitude and hopelessness,
a sort of pity stirred her. What did it matter? She said, in a choked
voice:
"Very well, I forgive."
XIV
The human creature has wonderful power of putting up with things. Gyp
never really believed that Daphne Wing was of the past. Her sceptical
instinct told her that what Fiorsen might honestly mean to do was very
different from what he would do under stress of opportunity carefully
put within his reach.
Since her return, Rosek had begun to come again, very careful not
to repeat his mistake, but not deceiving her at all. Though his
self-control was as great as Fiorsen's was small, she felt he had not
given up his pursuit of her, and would take very good care that Daphne
Wing was afforded every chance of being with her husband. But pride
never let her allude to the girl.
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