'I do not know; I am not certain. I daresay I'm mistaken.'

'No, you are not; I wish you were--that is to say, unless---- But I was
saying that it is most serious. The child's health is affected; she is
working herself up into an awful state of mind; she is losing all
self-control. I'm sure I'm the last person who would say anything against
her; but the time has come to speak out. Well, the other day, when we were
at the Eastwicks, you took the chair next to mine when she left the room.
When she returned, she saw that you had changed your place, and she said to
Ethel Eastwick, "Oh, I'm fainting. I cannot go in there; they are
together." Ethel had to take her up to her room. Well, this morbid
sensitiveness is most unhealthy. If I walk out on the terrace, she follows,
thinking that I have made an appointment to meet you. Jealousy of me fills
up her whole mind. I assure you that I am most seriously alarmed. Something
occurs every day--trifles, no doubt; and in anybody else they would mean
nothing, but in her they mean a great deal.'

'But what do you propose?'

'Unless you intend to marry her--forgive me for speaking so plain--there is
only one thing to do. I must leave.'

'No, no; you must not leave! She could not live alone with me. But does she
want you to leave?'

'No; that is the worst of it. I have proposed it; she will not hear of it;
to mention the subject is to provoke a scene. She is afraid if I left that
you would come and see me; and the very thought of my escaping her
vigilance is intolerable.'