"I would rather you would not ask me, Lady Vaughan," he said.
"And I would rather hear what you have to tell," she persisted, with a smiling air of command that he was too courteous not to obey.
"I do not think Lady Wallace would be a good companion for Hyacinth, because she is what people of the period call 'fast.' She created a great sensation three years ago by eloping with Lord Wallace. She was only seventeen at the time."
Lady Vaughan looked slightly disgusted; but Hyacinth, who perhaps felt in some measure that she was on her trial, said: "Perhaps she loved him."
Adrian turned to her eagerly. "That is what I was trying to explain to you the other day—false romance—how the truest, the purest, the brightest romance would have been, not eloping—which is the commonplace instinct of commonplace minds—but waiting in patience. Think of the untruths, the deceit, the false words, the underhand dealings that are necessary for an elopement!"
"But surely," said Lady Vaughan, "there are exceptions?"
"There may be. I do not know. I am only saying what I think. A girl who deceives all her friends, who leaves home in such a fashion, must be devoid of refinement and delicacy—not to mention truth and honesty."
"You are very hard," murmured Hyacinth.
"Nay," he rejoined, turning to her with infinite tenderness of manner; "there are some things in which one cannot be too hard. Anything that touches the fair and pure name of a woman should be held sacred."