“I want to have some one in my life who belongs to me,” Eric answered. “Another man’s child... Complications generally... I feel rather like a man who tries to escape from the pains of life by embracing a new faith; the more services and observances and penances you give me, the better I shall be pleased.”
Gaisford wrinkled his nose and sniffed.
“Excellent for the first week,” he said. “Will you be of the same mind a year from now, if you find she gets on your nerves so that you can’t work? This is self-indulgence... Don’t glare at me! You’re as bad as all the rest, you’ve the faults of your ridiculous, neurotic generation. This is a stunt! You’re having enormous fun with a brand-new emotion... By the way, you’ll probably have to tell your people everything.”
Eric nodded without speaking. Obviously Lady Lane would have to be told. She was a kind woman, a practical Christian; she would be shocked and touched; she too would think in terms of sacrifice and she would admire her son extravagantly. In her heart, too, she would despise Ivy as a traitor who had sold her sex; she would find a thousand honest objections to the marriage, she would conscientiously make Ivy miserable by hinting them to her; she would exhaust every device for getting her practical Christianity carried out by deputy; and, if she failed to save her son, he would lose his mother in the very struggle which she was making on his behalf.
“I see that,” said Eric grimly. “Plenty of obstacles, aren’t there? And all because she sat in this chair this morning and cried her heart out.”
Gaisford looked at his watch and jumped up with an exclamation of dismay:
“D’you know it’s two o’clock, Eric? I must get to bed. Understand! I’m not forbidding the banns, but promise me to think before you do anything irrevocable; you’re too good to waste on an impulse. Only one thing more. Why was she crying this morning?”
“You can hardly expect her to be light-hearted. I should think the man didn’t mince matters with her last night—”
“And she was crying—for him. Don’t forget that, my friend. Unless she’s right-down vicious, he must have fascinated her pretty completely before she consented to play the fool like this; she was very much in love with him. For all I know, she may be very much in love with him still. You’re adding to your troubles, if you’ve to chain her by the leg to keep her from going back to him.”
“She won’t have much temptation when the blackguard’s deserted her.”