"Certainly. We must, you see. I don't know what it is, but she rouses all the devil there is in me. And then—" He paused.
"And then?" Lady Bellingdown asked.
"Then she tells Rosamond."
"Was that how she separated you before? I never exactly knew."
"That was at the bottom of it."
"And you mean to be married now—here—without letting her know?"
"Yes. Once we are married, what can she do? Rosie's of age, you know. She doesn't have to ask any one's consent. When she is Lady Carleigh we can defy the mater."
"But I thought you were going to keep out of the way."
"We are if—if we can. Absence is better than defiance, isn't it?"
"Absence may be defiance," said his aunt. "I didn't think of it that way."