“They are pleased with it.”
“Pleased with it! Then I have nothing more to say, except that I hope they will not appeal to me on any question of divorce that may arise from such an unlikely marriage.”
“They are only lovers yet, Edward,” said Ruth. “It is not fair, or kind, to even think of divorce.”
“My dear Ruth, the fashionable girl of today accepts marriage with the provision of divorce.”
“Dora is hardly one of that set.”
“I hope she may keep out of it, but marriage will give her many opportunities. Well, I am sorry for the young priest. He isn’t fit to manage a woman like Dora Denning. I am afraid he will get the worst of it.”
“I think you are very unkind, father. Dora is my friend, and I know her. She is a girl of intense feelings and very affectionate. And she has dissolved all her life and mind in Mr. Stanhope’s life and mind, just as a lump of sugar is dissolved in water.”
Ruth laughed. “Can you not find a more poetic simile, Ethel?”
“It will do. This is an age of matter; a material symbol is the proper thing.”
“I am glad to hear she has dissolved her mind in Stanhope’s,” said Judge Rawdon. “Dora’s intellect in itself is childish. What did the man see in her that he should desire her?”