“Nonsense, my dear,” she said. “Men don’t ruin the women they love. Men, I mean!”
That stung; she meant that it should.
“But men keep their word,” he said. “Let me pass.”
“Keep your word to me,” said she, “and try to help poor Millie to keep hers to her husband. It is not a fine thing to steal a man’s wife, Lyndhurst. It is much finer to be respectable.”
“Respectable!” he said. “And to what has respectability brought us? You and me, I mean?”
“Not to disgrace, anyhow,” she said.
“It’s too late,” said he.
“Never quite too late, thank God,” she said.
Mrs. Ames gave a little sigh. She knew she had won, and quite suddenly all her strength seemed to leave her. Her little trembling legs refused to uphold her, a curious buzzing was in her ears, and a crinkled mist swam before her eyes.
“Lyndhurst, I’m afraid I am going to make a goose of myself and faint,” she said. “Just help me to my room, and get Parker——”