Gordon does n't care--he does n't care what I do or say. He does n't
care a pin for me!"
She spoke in her usual rattling, rambling voice, and brought out this
declaration with a curious absence of resentment.
"You talk about advantage," said Bernard. "I don't see what advantage it
is to you to say that."
"I want to--I must--I will! That 's the advantage!" This came out with a
sudden sharpness of tone; she spoke more excitedly. "He does n't care a
button for me, and he never did! I don't know what he married me for. He
cares for something else--he thinks of something else. I don't know what
it is--I suppose it 's chemistry!"
These words gave Bernard a certain shock, but he had his intelligence
sufficiently in hand to contradict them with energy.
"You labor under a monstrous delusion," he exclaimed. "Your husband
thinks you fascinating."
This epithet, pronounced with a fine distinctness, was ringing in the
air when the door opened and Gordon came in. He looked for a moment from
Bernard to his wife, and then, approaching the latter, he said, softly--
"Do you know that he leaves us to-morrow?"
CHAPTER XVIII
Bernard left then and went to California; but when he arrived there
he asked himself why he had come, and was unable to mention any other
reason than that he had announced it.
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