She was thinking all the time: 'That dreadful letter! What am I to do?'
And as though he knew her thoughts, Gregory said:
“I shall assume that Bellew will not defend the case. If he has a spark of chivalry in him he will be only too glad to see her free. I will never believe that any man could be such a soulless clod as to wish to keep her bound. I don't pretend to understand the law, but it seems to me that there's only one way for a man to act and after all Bellew's a gentleman. You'll see that he will act like one!”
Mrs. Pendyce looked at the daffodil in her lap.
“I have only seen him three or four times, but it seemed to me, Grig, that he was a man who might act in one way today and another tomorrow. He is so very different from all the men about here.”
“When it comes to the deep things of life,” said Gregory, “one man is much as another. Is there any man you know who would be so lacking in chivalry as to refuse in these circumstances?”
Mrs. Pendyce looked at him with a confused expression—wonder, admiration, irony, and even fear, struggled in her eyes.
“I can think of dozens.”
Gregory clutched his forehead.
“Margery,” he said, “I hate your cynicism. I don't know where you get it from.”