She perceived that Miss Forster was looking at her with curiosity.
“I didn’t know that he was married at all,” said Lydia calmly.
“No one could have guessed it for a moment, and he never gave us a hint,” said Miss Forster indignantly. “You won’t mind me saying, dear, that I wanted to get you in here and tell you quietly before you went up and found her there, sitting on the sofa as calm as you please.”
“Thank you,” said Lydia. “But really, you know, it doesn’t matter to me if Mr. Margoliouth is married. Only I think he ought to have told Miss Nettleship, and—and all of us.”
“The cad!” cried Miss Forster energetically, and striking the rather tight lap of her silk dress with a violence that threatened to split the white-kid glove. “What we women have to put up with, I always say! Only a man could behave like that, and what can we do to defend ourselves? Nothing at all. I was telling Sir Rupert Honoret the other day—those friends of mine who live in Lexham Gardens, you know—I was telling him what I thought of the whole sex. Oh, I’ve the courage of my opinions, I know. Men are brutes—there’s no doubt about it.”
“I suppose he didn’t expect her here?” said Lydia dreamily, still referring to the Margoliouth ménage.
Miss Forster understood.
“Not he! You saw what a fool he looked when the manageress told him she was here. She’s come to fetch him away, that’s what it is. She as good as said so. But they’ll be here till Monday morning, I’m afraid—the pair of them. Ugh!——” Miss Forster gave a most realistic shudder. “I don’t know how I shall sit at table with them. Miss Nettleship has no business to take in people of that sort—she ought to have made inquiries about the man in the first place, and I shall tell her so.”
“Oh, no,” said Lydia gently. “Please don’t. She’ll be so upset at the whole thing already.”
“Very generous!” Miss Forster declared, her hand pressed heavily on Lydia’s shoulder. “Of course, it’s you one can’t help thinking of—a young girl like you. Oh, the cad! If I were a man, I’d horsewhip a fellow like that.”