Lady Loo was not so sure, but she said: "Well, then, she must learn."
"I think there are many other things she had better learn first," rejoined Mrs. Ogden tartly.
Lady Loo smiled. "What, for instance? How to get married?"
Mrs. Ogden winced. "Well, after all," she said, "there are worse things for a girl than marriage, but fortunately Joan need not think of that unless she wants to; she's got her——" she paused—" her home."
Lady Loo thought. "You mean she's got you, you selfish woman." Aloud she said: "Well, times are changing and mothers will have to change too, I suppose. I hear Joan's clever; isn't she going to do something?"
Joan flushed. "I want to," she broke in eagerly.
Mrs. Ogden drew her away and Lady Loo laughed to herself complacently.
"Oh! the new generation," she murmured. "They're as unlike us as chalk from cheese. That girl don't look capable of doing a quiet little job like keeping a house or having a baby; she's not built for it mentally or physically."
At that moment a young man came across the lawn. "Joan!" he called. It was Richard Benson.
Joan turned with outstretched hands in her pleasure. "I didn't know you were in England," she said.