"Not my wife. Put your hand back, dad. Another woman."
He sat down beside his father on the terrace. The sea far below them was
sapphire, the cliffs pink with moss--gorgeous color. Orange umbrellas
dotted the distant beach.
"Your mother is down there," Jason Lee said. "Sun baths and all that.
You said there was another woman, Oliver."
"Yes." Quite simply and honestly he told him about Sandwich Jane. "She's
made me see things."
"What things?"
"Well, she thinks I've got it in me to get anywhere. She insists that if
I'd put my heart into it I might be--President."
One saw their likeness to each other in their twinkling eyes!
"She says that men follow me; and they do. I've found that out since I
went to Tinkersfield. She wants me to go into politics--there's a gang
down there that rules the town--rotten crowd. It would be some fight if
I did."
His father was interested at once. "It was what I wanted--when I was
young--politics--clean politics, with a chance at statesmanship. Yes, I
wanted it. But your mother wanted--money."
"Money hasn't any meaning to me now, dad. If I slaved until I dropped I
couldn't make fifteen hundred a week."
"Does--your wife make that now?"
"Yes. She's making it and spending it, I fancy."
Silence. Then: "What of this--other woman. What are you going to do
about her?"
O-liver leaned forward, speaking earnestly. "I love her. But I'm not
free. It's all a muddle."
"Does she know you're married?"
"No. I've got to tell her. But I'll lose her if I do. Her comradeship, I
mean. And I don't want to give it up."
"There is of course a solution."
"What solution?"
"Divorce."
"It wouldn't be a solution for Jane. She's not that kind. Marriage with
her means till death parts. I'll have to lose her. But it hurts."