'"
Gordon laughed.
"Yes; but, Mark, old boy, God has not yet made the man who can take
her from me."
The one eye dreamily closed, the banker whistled softly, and said:
"I see."
CHAPTER XXIII
THE NEW HEAVEN
Overman had appeared on the scene of Kate's life in a peculiar
crisis. Married two years, she had passed through the period of
love's ecstacy which woman finds first in self-surrender. She had
just reached the point of sex growth when a revolt against man's
dominion became inevitable.
This mood of revolt was made stronger by Gordon's fret over her social
gatherings. In the dim light of the pulpit, preaching with mystic
elation, he had seemed to her a god. Now, in the full blaze of
physical possession, the divine glow had paled about his brow. She
had found him only a man, self-conscious, egotistic and domineering.
He had many personal habits she did not like. He was overfastidious
in his dress, and critical and fussy about her lack of order in
housekeeping. He was finicky about his food. He hated tea, declaring
the odour made him sick. She felt this a covert thrust at her
five-o'clocks.
To his criticisms she at last coolly replied:
"I claim the perfect freedom you preach.
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