“Well, it isn’t. If she was as much in love with somebody else as Juliet she couldn’t throw over Stephen Cantyre now. She’d have to be put under restraint if she did—shut up in some sort of ward. The community wouldn’t stand for it.”
“It might be a nine days’ wonder, of course.”
“It would be one of those nine days’ wonders that last all your life. She’d be done for.” She went on in another key. “But, of course, her father and mother wouldn’t let her. They’re delighted. He’s very well off—and a good fellow, who’ll give her everything she wants.”
“But what good will that do if she doesn’t care for him?”
Her animation went into the eclipse that always came over her when she touched the heart of things.
“What makes you think she doesn’t—if it’s not a rude question?”
“The fact that she turned him down before.”
She broke in with that directness which she never hesitated to make use of when the time came.
“You don’t think she cares anything about you?”