A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus Part 16

'Yes, everything, Frank.'

'I am not sure that I can.'

'Is it so dreadful as that?'

'No, there is another reason.'

'Do tell me, Frank.'

'There is a good deal of it. You know how a modern poet excused himself to his wife for all his pre-matrimonial experiences. He said that he was looking for her.'

'Well, I do like that!' she cried indignantly.

'I was looking for you.'

'You seem to have looked a good deal.'

'But I found you at last.'

'I had rather you had found me at first, Frank.' He said something about supper, but she was not to be turned.

'How many did you really love?' she asked. 'Please don't joke about it, Frank. I really want to know.'

'If I choose to tell you a lie--'

'But you won't!'

'No, I won't. I could never feel the same again.'

'Well, then, how many did you love?'

'Don't exaggerate what I say, Maude, or take it to heart. You see it depends upon what you mean by love. There are all sorts and degrees of love, some just the whim of a moment, and others the pa.s.sion of a lifetime; some are founded on mere physical pa.s.sion, and some on intellectual sympathy, and some on spiritual affinity.'

'Which do you love me with?'

'All three.'

'Sure?'

'Perfectly sure.'

She came over and the cross-examination was interrupted. But in a few minutes she had settled down to it again.

'Well, now--the first?' said she.

'Oh, I can't, Maude--don't.'

'Come, sir--her name?'

'No, no, Maude, that is going a little too far. Even to you, I should never mention another woman's name.'

'Who was she, then?'

'Please don't let us go into details. It is perfectly HORRIBLE. Let me tell things in my own way.'

She made a little grimace.

'You are wriggling, sir. But I won't be hard upon you. Tell it your own way.'

'Well, in a word, Maude, I was always in love with some one.'

Her face clouded over.

'Your love must be very cheap,' said she.

'It's almost a necessity of existence for a healthy young man who has imagination and a warm heart. It was all--or nearly all--quite superficial.'

'I should think all your love was superficial, if it can come so easily.'

'Don't be cross, Maude. I had never seen you at the time. I owed no duty to you.'

'You owed a duty to your own self-respect.'

'There, I knew we should have trouble over it. What do you want to ask such questions for? I dare say I am a fool to be so frank.'

She sat for a little with her face quite cold and set. In his inmost heart Frank was glad that she should be jealous, and he watched her out of the corner of his eye.

'Well!' said she at last.

'Must I go on?'

'Yes, I may as well hear it.'

'You'll only be cross.'

'We've gone too far to stop. And I'm not cross, Frank. Only pained a little. But I do appreciate your frankness. I had no idea you were such a--such a Mormon.' She began to laugh.

'I used to take an interest in every woman.'

'"Take an interest" is good.'

'That was how it began. And then if circ.u.mstances were favourable the interest deepened, until at last, naturally--well, you can understand.'

'How many did you take an interest in?'

'Well, in pretty nearly all of them.'

'And how many deepened?'