“To you? Why, you are my husband!”
“Very true, Mrs. Lancaster.”
“What can be more agreeable to you than to see your wife popular in Society?”
“We thought of something better than that when ... we first fell in love with each other,” said Philip, fixing his eyes upon her.
“Something different: but was it better? or so wise? Are not a hundred people more amusing than one? At all events, we must take the evil with the good of our position. Love in a cottage is one thing, you know, and love in a palace another.”
“No love at all, perhaps you mean?”
“Well, if you’re content, I’ve no more to say.”
“Content! How should I not? My ambition isn’t satisfied, though. I mean to be spoken of as ‘the beautiful Mrs. Lancaster’ one of these days. Oh, it will come to pass, I assure you! The first thing one generally says, when one is shown a fashionable beauty, is, ‘What! that homely creature!’—’tis all a matter of dress and effrontery. I shall do very well. What do you think of my gown?”
“Very fine. But what about the effrontery?”