"I suppose I may have a talk with Heath anyway?" he said at last.
"She particularly begs you not to, and I feel strongly that she is right."
"Does she expect me to sit quietly by and see it go on forever? Why, there were bruises on her arm that he had made with his fingers."
Lydia paled as she always did when one of the brutal facts of life was thrust on her notice.
"Oh, she doesn't think that will happen again. It appears that she had lost her temper and tried her best to infuriate him. He is still very much in love with her at times, and she hopes that by a little diplomacy she may be able to arrange matters between them."
"Diplomacy with that insufferable cad! Pshaw!"
Lydia sighed, not in exasperation, but with the martyr's forbearance.
"It is really a crisis in Alice's life," she said, "and we must treat it with seriousness."
"I was never more serious in my life. I'm melancholy. I'm abject."
"Last night she told me that Geoffrey threatened to go West and get a divorce, and this frightened her."