"Uncle, if you get married, do you have to stay married?"
He looked down at her with a start. "What?" he said.
"If you don't like being married, do you have to stay?"
"Don't ask foolish questions!" he said; "of course you have to."
Elizabeth sighed. As for her uncle, he was disturbed to the point of irritation. He dropped her hand with a gesture almost of disgust, and the lines in his forehead deepened into painful folds. After supper he called Elizabeth's governess into the library, and shut the door.
"Miss White," he said, knocking his glasses off, "Elizabeth is getting to be a big girl; will you kindly make a point of teaching her—things?"
"I will do so immejetly, sir," said Miss White. "What things?"
"Why," said Robert Ferguson, helplessly, "why—general morals." He put his glasses on carefully, with both hands. "Elizabeth asked me a very improper question; she asked me about divorce, and—"
"Divorce!" exclaimed Miss White, astounded; "I have been at my post for eight years, sir, and I am positive that that word has never been used in Elizabeth's presence!"
He did not explain. "Teach her," he said, harshly, "that a woman has got to behave herself."