"
"I don't know what you imagine between them," said Mrs. Nettlepoint.
"Well, nothing," I allowed, "but what was visible on the surface. It
transpired, as the newspapers say, that they were old friends."
"He met her at some promiscuous party--I asked him about it afterwards.
She's not a person"--my hostess was confident--"whom he could ever think
of seriously."
"That's exactly what I believe."
"You don't observe--you know--you imagine," Mrs. Nettlepoint continued to
argue. "How do you reconcile her laying a trap for Jasper with her going
out to Liverpool on an errand of love?"
Oh I wasn't to be caught that way! "I don't for an instant suppose she
laid a trap; I believe she acted on the impulse of the moment. She's
going out to Liverpool on an errand of marriage; that's not necessarily
the same thing as an errand of love, especially for one who happens to
have had a personal impression of the gentleman she's engaged to."
"Well, there are certain decencies which in such a situation the most
abandoned of her sex would still observe. You apparently judge her
capable--on no evidence--of violating them."
"Ah you don't understand the shades of things," I returned. "Decencies
and violations, dear lady--there's no need for such heavy artillery! I
can perfectly imagine that without the least immodesty she should have
said to Jasper on the balcony, in fact if not in words: 'I'm in dreadful
spirits, but if you come I shall feel better, and that will be pleasant
for you too.
Pages:
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46