"I've been brought up on adages. They are called bromides now. As for illusions, everybody says they don't last anyway. I'd rather have them dispelled after a long wonderful honeymoon by a husband than by a lot of flirtations in a conservatory and in dark corners—"
"Good heavens! Do you suppose that I flirted in a conservatory and in dark corners?"
"I'll bet you didn't, but lots do. And in the haute noblesse, the ancient aristocracy! I've seen 'em."
"It isn't possible that you—"
"Oh, no, I love to dance too much. But I'm not easily shocked. I 'll tell you that right here. And I 'll tell you what I confessed to mother this morning."
V
When she had finished Mrs. Abbott sat for a few moments petrified; but she was thirty-eight, not sixty-five, and there was neither dismay nor softening in her narrowed light blue eyes.
"But that is abominable! Abominable!"
And Alexina, who was prepared for a scolding, shrank a little, for it was the first time that her doting sister had spoken to her with severity.
"I don't care," she said stubbornly, and she set her soft lips until they looked stern and hard.