“Do you ever notice my moods? That is news to me. I was waiting for the usual lectures.”
Jasper frowned. “I don’t want to lecture you. I don’t come here to lecture you. I have only sometimes asked you to keep your hair tidy and wear becoming dresses. There’s nothing in the way of a lecture about that.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s hardly worth while to trouble, is it? No one sees me but you, and then only four times a year.”
“Your own self-respect——” he began.
She looked at him.
“I lost that,” she said quietly, “long ago.”
“It is never too late,” he said. There was now a touch of priggishness in his manner. Conscience had given him a little push.
“Isn’t it?” she said. “I think it is. You showed me that.”
“I?” Jasper was frankly amazed.
“Yes, you.”