Part 54 (2/2)
”Don't you think so yourself?”
”And the children?” she asked.
”That's my punishment,” he said, gently. ”They will remain with you.”
”You entrust them to me?”
”I do.”
”Addie!” she cried, with a sob.
”You still love me a little, Tilly....”
She only sobbed.
”But not so much as you did,” he a.s.sured her. ”You are in love with Erzeele.”
”Erzeele?”
”Yes.”
”He is a friend.”
”He may become more ... later,” he forced himself to say, uncleansed as yet of jealousy, because she was still his wife.
”Addie,” she said, ”I am to blame. If I could only have got accustomed to things, like all of you, at Driebergen ... I should have been happy.”
”Yes, but it is not your fault that you couldn't.”
”I don't want a divorce,” she said.
”Why not?”
”For my sake ... and the children's.”
”The children's?”
”For their sake especially. No, Addie, I don't want it. Unless....”
”What?”
”Unless you want it ... for your own sake, to be free, to marry somebody else.”
”No.”
”Then I don't want it either. If you a.s.sure me....”
<script>