"They might have arranged a separation. As it is, there'll be an open row, I'm afraid."
"Still if it puts an end to what's intolerable——?" she suggested, as she watched him drinking his coffee and smoking his cigarette with his delicate satisfaction in all things that were good.
"A very unpleasant way out," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Would you have endured what Mr. Courtland couldn't?"
He smiled across at her; the sarcastic note was strong in his voice as he asked:
"Do you think me an impatient man? Do you think I've no power of enduring what I don't like, Sibylla?"
She flushed a little under his look.
"It's true," he went on, "that I endure vulgarity worst of all; and Harriet Courtland's tantrums are very vulgar, as all tantrums are."
"Only tantrums? Aren't all emotions, all feelings, rather vulgar, Grantley?"
He thought a smile answer enough for that. It is no good arguing against absurd insinuations, or trying to show them up. Let them alone; in time they will die of their own absurdity.