“I hadn't thought about it. Money, probably.”
“You are all wrong,” said Audrey, and lighted a fresh cigaret. “They want different things at different ages. That's why marriage is such a rotten failure. First they want women; any woman will do, really. So they marry—any woman. Then they want money. After that they want power and place. And when they've got that they begin to want—love.”
“Good gracious, Audrey, what a cynical speech!” said Mrs. Mackenzie. “If they've been married all that time—”
“Oh, tut!” said Audrey, rudely.
She had the impulse of the unhappy woman to hurt, but she was rather ashamed of herself, too. These women were her friends. Let them go on believing that life was a thing of lasting loves, that men were true to the end, and that the relationships of life were fixed and permanent things.
“I'm sorry,” she said. “I was just being clever! Let's talk about the war. It's the only thing worth talking about, anyhow.”
In the dining-room Clayton Spencer, standing tall and erect, had watched the women go out. How typical the party was of Natalie, of her meticulous care in small things and her indifference or real ignorance as to what counted. Was it indifference, really, or was it supreme craftiness, the stupidity of her dinners, the general unattractiveness of the women she gathered around her, the ill-assortment of people who had little in themselves and nothing whatever in common?
Of all the party, only Audrey and the rector had interested him even remotely. Audrey amused him. Audrey was a curious mixture of intelligence and frivolity. She was a good fellow. Sometimes he thought she was a nice woman posing as not quite nice. He didn't know. He was not particularly analytical, but at least she had been one bit of cheer during the endless succession of courses.
The rector was the other, and he was relieved to find Doctor Haverford moving up to the vacant place at his right.
“I've been wanting to see you, Clay,” he said in an undertone. “It's rather stupid to ask you how you found things over there. But I'm going to do it.”