"Why didn't he get a divorce and marry you? I thought any one could get
a divorce in the States."

"You English people know so much about the United States! You are
willing to believe anything and to know nothing. I really think you
feel that your dignity would be compromised if you knew as much about
America as we know about Europe. Your attitude is like that of old
people to a new invention which is too remarkable for their powers of
appreciation, so they take refuge in disdain."

He smiled, as he always did when her patriotism flamed. "You haven't
answered my question."

"What?--oh, divorce. If a man has a good wife, no matter how
uncongenial, he can't get rid of her unless he is a brute; and I didn't
happen to like that sort of man."

"Like? I thought you said just now that you loved him."

"I don't think now that I did. I explained that a while ago."

"Why have you changed your mind?"

"I never knew a man to ask so many questions."

But before he left her he knew.

* * * * *

Edith anticipated pleasurably the sensation her engagement would make,