“Why, like all men,” she replied. Then added, repulsing him with a languid movement⁠—

“You are all evil!”

One day, as they were talking philosophically of earthly disillusions, to experiment on his jealousy, or yielding, perhaps, to an over-strong need to pour out her heart, she told him that formerly, before him, she had loved someone.

“Not like you,” she went on quickly, protesting by the head of her child that “nothing had passed between them.”

The young man believed her, but none the less questioned her to find out what he was.

“He was a ship’s captain, my dear.”