“But — but” — he had trouble in finding words. “Wouldn't it make them unhappy to know about our love?”
“They aren't going to know about that; and it's quite a different thing. Marriage is so serious; you have children, and property settlements, and all that bother; and there'd be the question whether our children were to be Americans or English. You might want to go to America to live —”
“I'm really not much of an American, Rosemary. I've never been there, and may never go.”
“You can't be sure; and my people wouldn't be sure. They'd make an awful fuss, I know.”
“Many English people marry Americans,” argued the boy. “Lord Eversham-Watson — I visited them, and they seemed quite happy.”
“I know, darling, it's done; and don't have your blessed feelings hurt — you know I love you, and we've been so happy, and will be some more. But if we tie ourselves down, and get our families to arguing and all that — it would be a frightful bore.”
Lanny was imperfectly educated in modern ideas, and couldn't get the thing clear in his mind. He wanted his adored one all the time, and couldn't imagine that she might not want him. Why was she so concerned about her family in this one matter, and so indifferent, even defiant, in others? He asked her to explain it, and she tried, groping to put into words things that were instinctive and unformulated. It appeared that young ladies of the English governing classes who joined the movement for equal rights wanted certain definite things, like being able to write M.P. after their names, and to have divorce on equal terms with men; but they didn't mean to interfere with the system whereby their families governed the realm. They accepted the idea that when the time came for marriage each should adopt some honored name with a peculiar spelling, and become the mistress of some beautiful old country house and the mother of future viscounts and barons, or at the least admirals and cabinet ministers.
“It mayn't be so easy to find an upper-class Englishman,” remarked the boy; “the way they're getting killed off in this war.”
“There'll be some left,” answered the girl, easily. She had only to look in the mirror to know that she had special advantages.
Lanny pondered some more, and then inquired: “Is it because I don't take sides in the war?”