“So my heart’s with me here and now, I thank you.”
“What, you feel it beating!”
“Perhaps. A little.”
“Oh!”
“At being in Paris, Duke.”
“I deserved the snub. Go on, please.”
“My friend,” she said softly, “the history of my life is the history of my dreams. When I was a girl I had—oh, such dreams!”
“Girls, Miss Lamb dear, do! And when they grow up and marry they use the sharpest pieces of those broken dreams to beat their husbands with. Oh, I know! Every husband in the world is held responsible for the accidents that befall the dreams of his wife’s girlhood! Oh, I know! I’ve been, Miss Lamb dear, most utterly married.”
“I’m growing afraid of you, Duke. You’ve a cruel tongue!”
“Ava, I wouldn’t have you think I’m abusing your sister to you. But she certainly was born to be a good man’s wife, and she’s certainly never let me forget why she has failed to live up to the promise of her birth.”