"Long ago I knew that she was fitted for a marriage such as this—or a better one," she added in a lower voice.
"A better one?" he repeated, surprised.
"Yes," she nodded calmly. "Can you not imagine a more desirable marriage for a girl?"
"Don't you like Desboro?" he demanded.
"I like him—considering the fact that I scarcely know him. He has very handsome and very reckless eyes, but a good mouth. To look at him for the first time a woman would be inclined to like him—but he might hesitate to trust him. I had hoped Jacqueline might marry a professional man—considerably older than Mr. Desboro. That is all I meant."
He said, looking at her smilingly but curiously: "Have you any idea, Cynthia, how entirely you have changed in two years?"
She shook her head: "I haven't changed."
"Indeed you have——"
"Only superficially. What I was born I shall always be. Years teach endurance and self-control—if they teach anything. All one can learn is how to control and direct what one already is."