"Ah!" she said, with a quick sigh, as she turned and looked down the
length of the long, lamp-lit room. "You are strong--you are strong for
two."
He shook his head in negation, for he knew that hers was that fine,
steely strength of women which endures a strain all through a lifetime
of which the world knows nothing. Then, acting up to her own creed of
seeking always the clear understanding, she returned to the point they
had left untouched.
"And if two people had between them," she suggested, wonderingly, "that
with which you say they might be content, if they had it, and were sure
they had it, and had with it a perfect trust in each other, but knew
that they could never have more, could they be happy?"
"They could be happier than nearly everybody else in the world," he
answered.
"And if they had to go on all their lives--and if one lived in London
and the other in Warsaw--Warsaw?"
"They could still be happy."
"If she--alone at one end of Europe--" asked Wanda, with her
worldly-wise searching into detail--"if she saw slowly vanishing those
small attractions which belong to youth, for which he might care,
perhaps?"
"She could still be happy."
"And he? If he experienced a check in his career, or had some
misfortune, and felt lonely and disappointed--and there was no one near
to--to take care of him?"
"He could still be happy--if--"
"If--?"
"If he knew that she loved him," replied Cartoner, slowly.
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