"Really!" said Mrs Devitt, whose sensibilities were a trifle shocked by this remark.
"If two people are in love with each other, and can afford to marry, it seems a particularly natural proceeding," said Mavis simply.
"One that you would welcome?" asked Miss Spraggs, as she raised her thin eyebrows.
"One that someone else would welcome," put in Devitt gallantly.
But Mavis took no notice of this interruption, as she said:
"Of course. Nothing I should wish for more."
Miss Spraggs made two or three further efforts to take a rise out of Mavis; in each case, such was the younger woman's naturalness and self-possession, that it was the would—be persecutor who appeared at a disadvantage.
After luncheon the womenfolk moved to the drawing room; when Victoria presently went to sit with her invalid brother, Mrs Devitt assumed a business-like manner as she requested Mavis to sit by her. The latter knew that her fate was about to be decided. They sat by the window where, but for the intervening foliage, Mavis would have been able to see her old home.
"This is our best chance of a quiet talk, so I'll come to the point at once," began Mrs Devitt.
"By all means," said Mavis, as Miss Spraggs took up a book and pretended to be interested in its contents.