[Laughing.] I like your idea of comfort, Aubrey! But I should have thought you could have adopted some less extreme measure for providing Ellean with a chaperon? You have neighbours. Mrs. Cortelyon, for instance?
Aubrey.
[Stiffly.] Mrs. Cortelyon’s chaperonage was not very successful on the last occasion.
Cayley.
No, no; to be sure. Young Ardale. I was forgetting.
Aubrey.
Unhappily the whole scheme was a failure. Ellean conceived a violent aversion for Mrs. Tanqueray almost directly we came home, and a week later—I remember it was directly after dinner—she announced her intention of leaving the house for ever.
Cayley.
[The thought of his dinner still rankling.] Poor girl! No doubt she’s happier in her convent.