'I know, my dear'—she spoke almost apologetically—'you're not aware of what that impulsive child wants to insist on. I feel it an embarrassment even to tell you.'
'I know.'
'You know?' Lady John waited for condemnation of Jean's idea. She waited in vain. 'It isn't with your sanction, surely, that she makes this extraordinary demand?'
'I didn't sanction it at first,' said the other slowly; 'but I've been thinking it over.'
Lady John's suavity stiffened perceptibly. 'Then all I can say is, I am greatly disappointed in you. You threw this man over years ago, for reasons, whatever they were, that seemed to you good and sufficient. And now you come in between him and a younger woman, just to play Nemesis, so far as I can make out.'
'Is that what he says?'
'He says nothing that isn't fair and considerate.'
'I can see he's changed.'
'And you're unchanged—is that it?'
'I'm changed even more than he.'