Vivette now had leisure to be surprised at herself.
For the first time in her life she had refused something she really wanted. She decided that this was the limit of her generosity. She had refused Peter for herself, but at any rate no other woman should, without a title, pluck the fruit of her sacrifice. She would closely examine any claim on Peter which might be made.
XL
It did not take Peter long to feel that Vivette was wholly right. He blushed to recall how he had justified her indictment by the way in which he had received it.
That evening he made a plan. He had called the immediate future to account, and found he had six months to spare without much prospect of being usefully absorbed.
"I must get away from all this," he decided.
At the end of an evening spent restlessly at home, he startled Mrs. Paragon with the prospect of six months on the high seas.
"We will have a yacht," he told her. "I want to learn all about sailing. We'll go right away."