"And a very charming one."
"I fully agree with you, but of course she has her drawbacks."
"You think so?"
"Her present position is, to say the least, equivocal; and as a divorcée——"
"Oh, come, Kent-Lauriston, can't you let anyone alone? I never think of those things in connection with her. She's just Madame Darcy—that's all. She forms her own environment; one is so completely dominated by her presence, that other circumstances connected with her don't occur to one."
"In other words, you do not reason."
"Kent-Lauriston!"
"There, I won't say it—only you admit that so far I've known you better than you've known yourself.— Yes?— Well, do not forget what I once told you before. You can never love a woman whom you cannot respect, and no woman who respects herself would permit even a hint of a man's affections until she was free to receive them. Any such premature attempt would be fatal to his suit."
"Thank you," said Stanley, "I won't forget;" and then, with a touch of his old humour, which the responsibilities of the last few days had nearly crushed out, he added: "You're not going to try to save me again?"
"No, thank you, one experience of that sort has been quite enough," replied Kent-Lauriston, laughing.