"It was only a day or two ago that I heard about her having been engaged and then jilting the man because of his accident, and it was the most frightful shock you can imagine. What should I feel if she did that sort of thing to Mark one day? Of course, it shows that she's not at all the sort of person to sacrifice herself for anybody."
"I am quite sure," said Sir Julian gently, "that you have no idea what a terrible thing it would be for any man to fall seriously in love with a woman to whom he could never offer marriage. Mark is a married man."
"He hasn't seen that awful creature for years and years," said Iris resentfully.
"That has nothing to do with it. She is his wife."
"It seems so dreadfully hard."
"Yes, but it would seem a great deal harder if he cared for someone else."
"And she for him," Iris added tenaciously.
"I hope that your imagination has misled you," said Sir Julian gravely.
"But what shall I do?"
"Nothing. If you have already ceased your extraordinarily misguided efforts towards bringing them together, you can only leave the whole question alone. After all, Mark knows very well that as long as his wife is alive he's as much bound to her as though she were living at home in the normal way. They are neither of them children, and we have no right whatever to suppose that they cannot tell right from wrong."