“Don’t, don’t!” said Maurice. Then, after a pause, “You have never been able to be quite fair to her, have you, Zoe?”
“At any rate, I can’t help seeing that but for her you two would have been living quietly at Stone Acton—with Con.”
“How can you tell? If his time was come—— And I suppose it is—it must be—better for him. That was what Eirene said—that he could never disappoint us now, that I need have no fear of treachery from him, that he need never be afraid to meet my eye. What could she mean?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps she didn’t quite know what she was saying. Maurice, you say I haven’t been fair to her, and I confess that about the time we came here I was very angry with her, thinking she didn’t care for you at all compared with her ambition. But I believe she does.”
“You think it is necessary to tell me that? It would be a poor look-out for me if she didn’t, since she is all that I have now.”
“Oh, Maurice, don’t you count me?”
“You have old Wylie, and it will be quite different. You’ll understand soon enough.” Zoe felt insulted, for was it not her prescriptive right, as a novelist, to understand the feelings proper to all sorts of circumstances, without having experienced them? She could not quite keep the injured tone out of her voice.
“If you heard Graham talk, you would see that I couldn’t possibly change, even if I was likely to,” she said. “Why, I told him just now that he would be marrying me more for your sake than my own.”
“And what did he say?”
“Oh, of course he made a fuss. But really, you know, I feel that all our future will be decided by yours. Have you thought at all——”