"Benoliel," said the sacristan. "Curious name and curious tale. Every
one's talking of it."
Every one had something else to talk of when it was found that
Benoliel's pride, which had permitted him to buy a wife, had shrunk from
reclaiming the purchase money when the purchase was lost to him. And to
the man who had been willing to sell his daughter, the retention of her
price seemed perfectly natural.
From the moment when she heard Benoliel's name on the sacristan's lips,
all Kate's gaiety and happiness returned. She loved me, and she hated
Benoliel. She was married to me, and he was dead; and his death was far
more of a shock to me than to her. Women are curiously kind and
curiously cruel. And she never could see why her father should not have
kept the money. It is noteworthy that women, even the cleverest and the
best of them, have no perception of what men mean by honour.
How do I account for the music? My good critic, my business is to tell
my story--not to account for it.
And do I not pity Benoliel? Yes. I can afford, now, to pity most men,
alive or dead.