“I don’t want to take any risks.” He seemed to tell every one that—Ivy, Gaisford and his mother.
“But, in marriage, risks are necessary. Marriage is always an adventure, a blind leap. You don’t begin to know anything about a woman until you’re married to her. Even if you waited until you thought there was nothing more to learn, the girl becomes a wife, Eric, and the wife becomes a mother. Even she doesn’t see how big the change is until long afterwards, when she has time to look back and compare. I don’t want you to run any risks, my precious son.”
“I know... And I want peace and quiet with somebody I love and somebody who loves me,” he answered wearily. “You remember the last time we had a talk in this room?”
“Well, Ivy loves you. Of course you’ve got a certain name, a certain position; she’s a good deal dazzled by that.”
“That isn’t the biggest factor with her... Shall we go up? You won’t say anything about this to the others, will you?”
They walked through the hall and up the stairs, arm in arm. Lady Lane paused outside the door of her room and kissed Eric good-night.
“God bless you and make you happy, Eric,” she whispered.
“Thank you... I met Barbara the other night, mother.”
“Yes?”
“It was at a big dinner. I don’t want to meet her again; it brought everything back much too vividly.”