"Oh, Lord!" said Lady Jim, sipping the wine, and wondered what he would say could he see into her mind. "Give me some of that vol-au-vent, Lionel. It is really very good."
The man felt slightly disappointed. "You can eat?"
"Do you require me to tell you that?" she asked lightly. "I have enjoyed every course. Eat--I should think so. You don't want me to faint, as Hilda has been doing."
"But your feelings"
"Oh, they are well under control, now. And after all"--Leah paused with a fork half-way to her mouth--"it's best to be sensible even when things smash. If I had come down to howl about the house, where would you have been?"
"I really cannot understand your nature."
Lady Jim nodded. "Same here. I never know what I shall do under given circumstances, save keep my poor wits about me. We're strange beasts, Lionel--strange beasts."
He disagreed, mindful of her Good Samaritan kindness. "You make yourself out to be worse than you are, Lady James."
"Don't you make any such mistake. I never seek cheap praise by crying down my virtues. Were you my father-confessor--which you are not--and I religious--which I have no inclination to be--I should shock you into Hilda's state. Poor little thing, what an undisciplined mind she has, and how she does work for those tyrants the emotions! I think you had better send for Joan: she is used to women who run wild."
"You put things unpleasantly," said he, uneasily.