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...