Mabel fanned herself gently. Then her lip quivered.
"I don't think papa ever meant to let me in for an ignominious position of this sort--but here I am. If Robin won't champion me, who will?"
"Oh, but surely," said Elma, "surely Robin Meredith would never----"
"That's the trouble. He would," said Mabel. "And once you've found that out about a man--you simply can't--you can't believe in him, that's all."
Elma sat in a wretched heap on her bed.
"I think it's horrid of him to let you feel like that," she said. "Other men wouldn't. Cuthbert wouldn't to any one he cared for."
"Lots wouldn't," said Mabel. "That's why it's so ignominious, to have thought so much of this one all these years!"
"Mr. Maclean wouldn't," said Elma. She had always wondered why Mabel had ignored him in her matrimonial plans.
"No, I don't believe he would," said Mabel. "But that's no good to me, is it?"
"Mr. Symington wouldn't," said Elma.