"Thank Heaven, we hadn't announced the engagement, but, of course, it will all get about—things always do. And there's nothing worse for a girl than to get that sort of reputation, especially when she's not—not tremendously sought after, or pretty or anything."
Lady Isabel had never before come so near to an avowal that her eldest daughter's career had proved a disappointment to her, and Alex in the admission, rightly gauged the extent of her mother's dismay.
"Why did you do it, Alex?"
Alex tried haltingly to explain, but she could only say:
"I—I felt I didn't care for him enough."
"But you hadn't had time to find out! You accepted him when he proposed, so you must have been quite ready to like him then, and you'd only been engaged for four weeks. How could you tell—a little thing like you?" wailed Lady Isabel.
"Oh, Alex, if you'd only come to me about it first—I could have explained it all to you—girls often get fancies about being in love."
"I thought you wanted me to marry for love. You said so," sobbed Alex.
"Of course, I don't want you to marry without it. But it's the love that comes after marriage that really counts—and a boy you'd known all your life, practically—that we all liked—you could have been ideally happy, Alex." Lady Isabel looked at her almost resentfully.
"I don't know what will happen to you, my darling, I don't indeed. I sometimes think you are just as headstrong and exaggerated as when you were a little girl. And, Alex, I don't like even to say such a thing to you—but—there's never been any one but Noel, and I'm afraid this isn't the sort of thing that makes any man.... Nothing puts them off more—and no wonder."