“True. True. But one must not encourage immorality.”
“Nothing encourages immorality so much as condemnation and prohibition.”
“Is that how men of the world think of it?”
“I don’t know. It is how I think of it.”
Francis combed his fingers through his beard.
“Then . . . Then, what am I to do?”
“It seems to me that the difficulty has already solved itself. Miss Clibran-Bell is in love with Frederic. She will probably make him a good wife. Frederic could not possibly marry the other girl. It would destroy all her chances of marrying a man whom she could love, honour and respect . . .”
“But he has destroyed her chances.”
“Not at all. She will be a soberer, a better and a more sympathetic woman after this experience, if she is helped through it and treated with decent human feeling . . . Frederic is finished as far as she is concerned.”
“I told Frederic he must leave my house. I went back on it.”