“Is that the way it strikes you?”
“My dear, I couldn’t say which I thought the luckier, Gerald to get Aurora, or Aurora to get Gerald.”
“You surprise me. To me it seems just about the riskiest combination that could be imagined. I have felt it all 436along. Those two have no more in common, I have said, than a bird and a fish.”
“Nonsense, my dear girl! Nonsense!”
“I have heard him get so impatient with her because simply she didn’t pronounce a word right. I’ve seen him so annoyed he nearly trembled trying to choke it down.”
“But did she mind? I mean, his impatience?”
“I can’t say she did; but–”
“There you have it. They are marvelously suited. Listen and let me talk to you for your comfort. This, do you hear, is exactly the most delightful thing that could have happened. Haven’t you noticed that complex natures are rather given to uniting with simple ones, and finding happiness with them? An artist–how often!–marries his model, a philosopher marries a peasant.”
“Go on!” sighed Estelle. “Go on! I love you for making me feel better!” Her eyes moistened again in an almost luxurious melancholy.
“One of the reasons for mother and me wishing for this consummation was the broadening of life it would afford Gerald. Gerald doesn’t think about money. Aurora’s money, all the same, will do a lot for him in making possible his getting away from here, where the truth is he stagnates. Then, too, she will cure him of his morbidness. He sees red if one so much as breathes the suggestion that his art is morbid. But of course it is.”