'You will not lend ear to an intercession?'
'I will not.'
'Of course, Mrs. Warwick, it is not for me to hint at things that lawyers could say on the subject.'
'Your forbearance is creditable, Lady Wathin.'
'Believe me, Mrs. Warwick, the step is—I speak in my husband's name as well as my own—strongly to be advised.'
'If I hear one word more of it, I leave the country.'
'I should be sorry indeed at any piece of rashness depriving your numerous friends of your society. We have recently become acquainted with Mr. Redworth, and I know the loss you would be to them. I have not attempted an appeal to your feelings, Mrs. Warwick.'
'I thank you warmly, Lady Wathin, for what you have not done.'
The aristocratic airs of Mrs. Warwick were annoying to Lady Wathin when she considered that they were borrowed, and that a pattern morality could regard the woman as ostracized: nor was it agreeable to be looked at through eyelashes under partially lifted brows. She had come to appeal to the feelings of the wife; at any rate, to discover if she had some and was better than a wild adventuress.
'Our life below is short!' she said. To which Diana tacitly assented.