“It would look so odd.”
“My dear child, when you consider how many people do get married, such an ordinary case as ours would not look odd, I assure you. Besides, I thought we had both decided not to mind what people said. Not that people will say anything that need afflict you. Lady Teignmouth is known to be an impracticable person, and very jealous of your beauty; so that when it is reported that neither she nor your brother was present at your wedding, it will be laid to her. Lord Teignmouth and I were always excellent friends; and though I am not a very grand person, still, I do not think he would be supposed to object to the marriage.”
“Of course not. How could he?” said Lady Gwendolyn quickly. “I never dreamed they would find any objection of that sort.”
“What, then?”
“I suppose they must accuse me of having behaved badly in some way to account for Reggie’s desertion.”
“Not at all; they will think it is one of my lady’s caprices. She is cordially disliked by her own sex, because she has a way of making herself so extremely agreeable to their husbands.”
“Like your friend, Mrs. O’Hara,” put in Lady Gwendolyn maliciously.
“I don’t think the two women can be compared in any way. Norah is a thoughtless flirt—Lady Teignmouth is a cold-blooded coquette.”
“Isn’t that a distinction without a difference, Lawrence?”
“I should be sorry to think so, Gwen, since a certain young lady, who is beyond measure dear to my heart, was certainly a thoughtless flirt in days not very long gone by.”