'Has found means?' Dora repeated, as if she really wondered what was in his thought.
'Of course I mean only through your affection for her. How she works that, you know best yourself.'
'It's delightful to have a mother of whom every one is so fond,' said Dora, smiling.
'She is a most remarkable woman. Don't think for a moment that I don't appreciate her. You don't want to quarrel with her, and I daresay you are right.'
'Why, Raymond, of course I'm right!'
'It proves you are not madly in love with me. It seems to me that for you I would have quarrelled——'
'Raymond, Raymond!' she interrupted, with the tears again rising.
He sat looking at her, and then he said, 'Well, when they are married?'
'I don't know the future—I don't know what may happen.'
'You mean that Tishy is so small—she doesn't grow—and will therefore be difficult? Yes, she is small.' There was bitterness in his heart, but he laughed at his own words. 'However, Effie ought to go off easily,' he went on, as Dora said nothing. 'I really wonder that, with the Marquise and all, she hasn't gone off yet. This thing, to-night, ought to do a great deal for her.'