"I daresay he would. I'm sure he would have been very dear and kind. But men do dislike that kind of thing so much. You know, dear, a woman, after she's married, has to forget herself and think of her husband."
Lily had been taught to regard self-abnegation as a virtue, and she saw nothing but cause for shame in her own fleeting suspicion that it might in reality be nothing but a weakness.
"There's one thing, you won't have the wretched question of money to worry you. When I first married I had no allowance, and had to ask Charlie for every penny. Not that he ever grudged it, poor dear—far from it. But it used to make it so difficult, somehow, to ask for a shilling here and a shilling there—even though it was absolutely necessary. Of course later on, when we were a little better off, he gave me a fixed sum for the housekeeping, and I always saved on that. Charlie sometimes asked me how I'd managed to find a new bonnet, or some little thing for the babies, but I never told him very much about it." Ethel laughed reminiscently.
"Would he have minded?"
"Oh, I don't suppose so. But one never quite knows about money, with men. They're so odd about that sort of thing. And, of course, women don't know anything about money matters."
It seemed a pity that there should be so many things that women knew nothing about.
"Marriage is the only life for a woman, my dear. I hope all my three will marry. I can't tell you how sorry I am for women who are old maids—no interests, no children, very likely no home. Whereas a happy married life——" She paused expressively, and then said:
"You were too young to notice very much when your mother was still alive, but look at your father without her! He has never got over her loss. They were absolutely devoted to one another. Or if you want to know what really happily married people are like, Lily dear, you've only to look at us."
The contemplation of Mr. and Mrs. Hardinge left Lily still speechless.
Perhaps something of this dubious spirit showed in her face. At all events Mrs. Hardinge said very earnestly: