“And,” ended Muriel, still more tragically, “General Carden has never seen his son again nor forgiven Millicent for throwing him over. It’s rather contradictory, isn’t it?”
Anne looked down into the street where a flower-girl was standing on the pavement with a basket full of great white lilies. She contemplated her for a few moments in silence, and seemingly drew conclusions from the flowers. She looked round again at Muriel.
“I think I understand,” she said quietly.
Muriel looked at her curiously. “Then it’s quite remarkably intelligent of you.”
“No,” said Anne calmly. “He loves his son and has never forgotten him. She has forgotten [Pg 151]him and probably never loved him. That’s why he can’t forgive her.”
“Oh!” said Muriel. “I’m sure you’re right that he has not forgotten. He’s eating his heart out for him, or I’m much mistaken, and he’s too proud to own it by the quiver of an eyelash. We women have the easier time. It’s our rôle to keep our arms and hearts open to sinners, and thank Heaven for it.”
Anne was again looking at the flowers. She had said she understood, but in reality it was only partly. She did understand General Carden, but Millicent with her serious speeches on nobility and bigness of character was another matter. She voiced her perplexity to Muriel.
“Oh, but Millicent!” said Muriel in a tone that quite disposed of the question.
“Yet,” said Anne, “Millicent has always talked as if she would help any one re-make his life, as if it were the one thing she would do, and—” She broke off.
Muriel gurgled. “Oh, Anne darling, you’re so big-minded and truthful—in spite of your occasional woman-of-the-world airs, which are only a veneer—that you accept people at their [Pg 152]own valuation. The things that people say they will do are the very things that at a crucial moment they do not do. I think crucial moments are a kind of revolution which turns the other side of the person completely to the fore.” And then her tone changed to one of solemn warning. “You, Anne, doubtless consider yourself a luxury-loving woman, to whom the bare prospect of coarse underclothes, cold rooms, ill-cooked food, and commonplace surroundings would be appalling. Yet I firmly believe that if the crucial moment came you would tramp the roads with your man.”