Leslie.
Dun has been very good to Pietro, who is poor, with an old blind mother. Oh, he is good to everybody—good to everybody!
Mrs. Stonehay.
But, my dear Mrs. Renshaw, a wife ought not to be astonished at her husband’s good-nature in the early days of their marriage. What else did you expect for the first month?
Irene.
Hush, mamma dear; all Leslie means is that she is proud of her husband’s goodness. What wife would not be?
Leslie.
Yes, that is it—I am both proud and humble. Why, look! Directly we came here he sought out all the poor; in a few days they have learnt to bless his name, and when I pray for him I think I hear their chant echoing me. I tell you, sometimes I hide myself away to shed tears of gratitude, and it’s then that I think a woman’s heart might be broken less easily by cruelty than by too much kindness!
Mrs. Stonehay.
[To herself.] This girl’s parade of her model husband is insufferable; it is time I ended it.