"Oh, my dear, you know him as well as I do."
"You think he was worn out with being good?"
"He has been good, Beatrice—very good—ever since his engagement."
"Yes, he has. But if he had had a mind to misbehave, I don't think his duty to Rachel would have stopped him. The fact is, since his engagement he has never wanted anyone but her. I have watched him closely, and wonderful as it seems, he has never shown the slightest disposition to flirt beyond the stage of pretty speeches—not even when she was away—not even with Sarah Brownlow."
"It is a great pity," sighed Mrs. Hardy. "I wish they were safely married."
"And at the worst of times," the younger lady proceeded thoughtfully, regardless of the interjection, "he was fastidious in his choice—he liked someone who was either pretty or clever, or decidedly attractive in some way. I never knew him take any notice of a girl of that sort before."
"There is no accounting for men's tastes, my dear."
"Oh, yes," Mrs. Reade replied promptly; "I know that Minnie Hale is not his taste. I know he did not go on with her as you say he did, merely for the pleasure of it to himself. I think it must have been to spite Rachel."
"Beatrice!"
"Yes, mother—that is what I think. It is the only reasonable motive he could have had."