She asked if there was anything that she could do for him and he said no.
“But you’ve already done a great deal—more than anybody. You’ve done a lot for her,” said Captain Patch.
Nancy wished that she could have said she liked Mrs. Harter. But, at the moment, she did not feel that she liked Mrs. Harter at all, and apparently some unwonted scruple prevented her from saying that she did.
“Oh, Bill, don’t do anything to mess up your life,” she besought him. “You’re so young. It’s so awful to make a mistake right at the beginning.”
She was thinking of her own mistake, no doubt.
“What sort of mistake do you mean, exactly?” said Bill in his literal way. “Do you mean taking her away from Harter? You see, he says that he wouldn’t divorce her even if we did.”
“A great many people, even nowadays, don’t approve of divorced people remarrying. Wouldn’t your own family mind?”
“I’m afraid so. My dear old father would be very sorry, I’m afraid.”
“Wouldn’t that stop you from doing it?”
“Well, no, I can’t honestly say that it would. He’s had his life and run it his own way, and now I must manage mine for myself. It’s a thing about which one has a right to judge for oneself, really and truly.”