"How can they?" Anna speculated.
"Unfortunately we must remember that people are capable of a great many things which we cannot understand," said Ronald.
"Her conscience can give the poor thing no peace, I should think." Again Mrs. Lisle shook her head sadly.
"You mustn't think hardly of Bernadette, mother. It—it wasn't altogether her fault that she and Godfrey didn't hit it off. He knows that, I think, himself. I'm sure he'd say so. She had her difficulties and—er—trials."
"Most married women have, my dear, but that's no reason for deserting their husbands and children, and committing the sin that she has committed—and is committing."
"If this unhappy person——" Ronald began.
Arthur might stand it from his mother; he could not from Ronald Slingsby. "If you've nothing pleasant to call people, Slingsby, you might just call them by their names. Bernadette has been a dear good friend to me, and I don't like the phrase you choose to describe her. And I must say, mother, that if you knew the circumstances as well as I do, you'd be more charitable."
"I'm as sorry—as bitterly sorry—as I can be, dear, but——"
"It's more a question of justice than of sorrow."
"Well, how have we been unjust, Arthur?" This question of Anna's was plainly hostile.