“Shall you not come again to Mrs Atkinson’s with me?”
“For the moment, no. Edmund is all I want. He takes up all my energies, and fills the time I have available for such things. But who can say?”
“Let me just put an idea in your mind, my dear,” Lydia said. “You know what a cuckold is?”
“A man who is deceived by his wife?”
“Indeed. Gerald is not a cuckold, because he knows about your affairs, and, since his s****l desires are directed elsewhere, he feels no jealousy. However, other men feel jealousy acutely. For some, it is a wholly negative emotion. But there are those for whom it can be a source of excitement.”
“Really?” Guinevere said. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Yes,” Lydia replied. “But believe me, it is so. I am not entirely sure of the psychology of it. It seems that for s
