"That's the point. Belinda would prefer an American Wall Street man as a son-in-law or a Scotch Whisky Merchant, but they're not so easily got—it's a case of get what you can. So Jim is to be sacrificed."
"But why?" persisted May quietly.
"Why, because—although Jim has seen Belinda and heard her hard false voice, he doesn't see what she is. He is too responsible to imagine Belindas and too clever to imagine Gwens. Gwen is very pretty!"
May looked again into the fire.
"Now do you see what a weak fool I've been?" asked Lady Dashwood fiercely.
"Lady Belinda will bleed him," said May.
"When Belinda is Jim's mother-in-law, he'll have to pay for everything—even for her funeral!"
"Wouldn't her funeral expenses be cheap at any price?" asked May.
"They would," said Lady Dashwood. "How are we to kill her off? She'll live—for ever!"
Then Mrs. Dashwood seemed to meditate briefly but very deeply, and at the end of her short silence she asked—