“But surely she couldn’t actually fall in love with a man like Edwin Crathie?” he remonstrated.
“I wasn’t thinking of Sir Edwin specially. She goes about a great deal, you know, and meets many people. She has a strong vein of romance too. I always feel I shall be very glad when she is safely anchored, if only it is to the right man.”
They were interrupted then by the Bridge players, who had finished their first rubber, and Lord Denton persuaded Hermon to change places with him for a time, and came to sit over the fire with Lorraine. Presently he too mentioned Hal.
“She is the best woman Bridge player I have ever met,” he said. “She seems to be developing into something rather out of the ordinary. Hasn’t she grown much better-looking?”
Lorraine smiled, a slow, sweet smile.
“Alymer Hermon has just been praising Hal too,” she said; “I like to hear you men admire her; it shows you can appreciate sterling worth as well—well—shall we call it daring impropriety?”
“You are a little severe.”
“Am I? Well, you see, I know a good many men pretty intimately; and I have gleaned from various confiding moments that it is not the working woman chiefly, relying only on her own protection, who strays into the murky byways and muddy corners of life. It is surprisingly often the direction of the idle, home-guarded, bored young lady. Flip, if it came to a choice, I believe I would put my money on the worker. It’s such a splendid, healthy, steadying thing to have a real purpose and a real occupation; instead of just days and weeks of idle enjoyment. And as for temptations! Well, they abound pretty fully in both cases; it isn’t the amount of temptation likely to be encountered that matters, so much as the quality of the individual armour to meet it with.”
“Still, when it comes to being hungry and cold and having no money?” he argued.
“It doesn’t make much difference in the long run, except that one hopes The Man Above will surely find a wider forgiveness for the woman who was hungry and cold than for the woman who was just bored, but hadn’t the grit to find an aim and purpose to renew and invigorate a purposeless life. All the same, I’d like to see Hal safely anchored to a real good fellow. Flip, if you could persuade her to try, she’d make you a splendid wife.”