'Well, but——' Her ladyship blinked, suddenly seeing daylight. 'Oh! It was just the unexpected sight of him bringing it all back! That was what fired you this afternoon. Of course'—she made an honest attempt at sympathetic understanding—'the memory of a thing like that can never die—can never even be dimmed for the woman.'
'I mean her to think so.'
'Jean?'
Vida nodded.
'But it isn't so?'
Lady John was a little bewildered.
'You don't seriously believe,' said Vida, 'that a woman, with anything else to think about, comes to the end of ten years still absorbed in a memory of that sort?'
Lady John stared speechless a moment. 'You've got over it, then?'
'If it weren't for the papers, I shouldn't remember twice a year there was ever such a person as Geoffrey Stonor in the world.'
'Oh, I'm so glad!' said Lady John, with unconscious rapture.