“Why?”
“Their former relation to each other precludes its possibility.”
“But, you must remember, Constance, that Delia never knew how deeply he was once attached to her.”
“She knows that he offered himself.”
“And that, in a very short time afterwards, he met her with as much apparent indifference as if she had never been to him more than a pleasant acquaintance. Of the struggle through which he passed, in the work of obliterating her image from his mind, she knows nothing.”
“But he knows it,” objected Constance.
“And what does that signify? Will he defend her less skillfully on this account? Rather will he not feel a stronger interest in the case?”
“I do not think that she will employ him to defend her,” said Constance. “I would not, were the case mine.”
“Womanly pride spoke there, Constance.”
“Or rather say a manly lack of perception in your case.”