CHAPTER XXVII - MRS HURTLE GOES TO THE PLAY


On the day after the visit just recorded, Paul Montague received the
following letter from Mrs Hurtle:--


MY DEAR PAUL,--

I think that perhaps we hardly made ourselves understood to each
other yesterday, and I am sure that you do not understand how
absolutely my whole life is now at stake. I need only refer you to
our journey from San Francisco to London to make you conscious
that I really love you. To a woman such love is all important. She
cannot throw it from her as a man may do amidst the affairs of the
world. Nor, if it has to be thrown from her, can she bear the loss
as a man bears it. Her thoughts have dwelt on it with more
constancy than his;--and then too her devotion has separated her
from other things. My devotion to you has separated me from
everything.

But I scorn to come to you as a suppliant. If you choose to say
after hearing me that you will put me away from you because you
have seen some one fairer than I am, whatever course I may take in
my indignation, I shall not throw myself at your feet to tell you
of my wrongs. I wish, however, that you should hear me. You say
that there is some one you love better than you love me, but that
you have not committed yourself to her. Alas, I know too much of