“Is she engaged to be married to him?”
“She says she is not, but she thinks she might be if it were not for your alluring influence over him.”
Mrs. Bradley laughed a little before she replied.
“Poor Mr. Malleson! To be so beset. But if Miss Chichester is not engaged to him I do not see that I owe her anything.” She turned suddenly to her hostess. “Miss Tracy, would you think it my duty to forbid Mr. Malleson to see me?”
“I don’t know why it should be. Do you?”
“No. Only that I’m not in his class, that I have nothing against him, that he appears to be an extremely well-intentioned young man, and that his association with me, slight as it has been, has already subjected him to much criticism.”
“Those are not good reasons, Mrs. Bradley. Barry cares nothing for criticism. The fact that he is well-intentioned prevents any unjust reflections upon you. And, so far as I am concerned, I should be delighted to see you become intensely and permanently interested in each other. As I view the matter, in the light of my present beliefs, I think it is just such relationships that modern society needs for its regeneration.”
“Thank you! That is practically what Mr. Farrar said to me.”
“Did he talk with you about Barry?”