“Why not?”
“Absurd! An insignificant little creature, with no attraction except a dimple, which she doesn’t know how to show off. You have only to lift your little finger, Anne, and he would be at your feet.”
Anne showed no surprise, and made no disclaimer.
“And it would be better than that last foolish affair from which you were only just saved.”
She repeated the word slowly. “Saved? And what saved me?”
“Oh, don’t be vexed! Nothing, my dear, but your own worldly wisdom, which came to the rescue in the nick of time, as I always knew it would.” Mrs Martyn laughed.
The girl had pulled the hood of her coat over her head to protect it from the rain. She let it slip back, and it showed her face grave.
“Why must you all talk of my worldly wisdom!” she exclaimed. “Am I so hateful that you can’t give me credit for a good impulse?”
“Oh, I think you have impulses—it was no doubt an impulse which landed you in the entanglement to which I was referring—but then, happily, you retract in time. Recollect, you can’t do this all your life. I wish you were safely married.”
Anne drew a deep breath, then laughed.