"Well, I am not of them; I remember," says Tita. She pauses. "People of the world seem to me to do strange things."
"On the contrary," with a sneer, "it is people who are not in society who do strange things."
"Meaning me?" flushing and frowning. Tita's temper is beginning to give way. "What have I done now?" asks she.
"That is what I have been trying to explain," says Lady Rylton, "but your temper is so frightful that I am afraid to go into anything. Temper, my dear Tita, should always be one's slave; it should never be given liberty except in one's room, with one's own maid or one's own husband."
"Or one's own mother-in-law!"
"Well, yes! Quite so!" says Tessie with a fine shrug. "If you will make me one apart, so be it. I hate scenes; but when one has a son—a precious, only child—one must make sacrifices."
"I beg you will make none for me."
"I have made one already, however. I have permitted my son to marry you."
"Lady Rylton——"
"Be silent!" says Tessie, in a low but terrible voice. "How dare you interrupt me, or speak to me at all, until I ask for a reply? You, whom I have brought from the very depths, to a decent position in society! You—whom I have raised!"