The Haseltons
I
She sat in a corner of a large London drawing-room, and the two men stood before her—Hillier Haselton, her husband, and George Swann, her husband's cousin; and, beyond them, the mellow light of shaded candles, vague groupings of black coats, white shirt-fronts, and gay-tinted dresses, and the noisy hum of conversation.
The subject that the two men were discussing—and more especially Swann's blunt earnestness—stirred her, though through out it she had been unpleasantly conscious of a smallness, almost a pettiness, in Hillier's aspect.
"Well, but why not, my dear Swann? Why not be unjust: man's been unjust to woman for so many years."
Hillier let his voice fall listlessly, as if to rebuke the other's vehemence; and to hint that he was tired of the topic, looked round at his wife, noting at the same time that Swann was observing how he held her gaze in his meaningly. And the unexpectedness of his own attitude charmed him—his hot defence of an absurd theory, obviously evoked by a lover-like desire to please her. Others, whose admiration he could trust, would, he surmised, have Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/147 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/148 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/149 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/150 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/151 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/152 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/153 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/154 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/155 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/156 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/157 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/158 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/159 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/160 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/161 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/162 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/163 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/164 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/165 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/166 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/167 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/168 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/169 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/170 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/171 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/172 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/173 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/174 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/175 Page:The Yellow Book - 05.djvu/176 It was close upon seven o'clock. She went upstairs to dress for dinner, and kneeling beside the bed, prayed to God with an outburst of passionate, pulsing joy. . . .
Ten minutes later Hillier came in from his dressing-room. He clasped his hands round her bare neck, kissing her hair again and again.
"I have been punished, Nellie," he began in a broken whisper. "Good God! it is hard to bear. . . . Help me, Nellie, . . . help me to bear it."
She unclasped his fingers, and started to stroke them; a little mechanically, as if it were her duty to ease him of his pain. . . .