"In spite of all your theories!" suggested Carrissima.
"Of course," Bridget continued, "I quite understand that most people
believe Jimmy sacrificed a great deal more than that! Your brother
Lawrence, for instance! Oh dear, I can imagine exactly what he says!
Carrissima, there's one thing which makes me angry!"
"Only one?" said Carrissima.
"The want of discrimination in the human mind. I dare say that even yours is tainted! It's of no use to pretend you can't understand. In a moment of self-denying effusiveness I admitted that I deliberately angled for a husband: first for Mark Driver, then for Colonel Faversham. Well, although one would have none of me and I didn't want the other, the fact remains that I am the wife of the richest of the trio! Everybody who knows Jimmy naturally thinks that was all I thought about—his money, his position and so forth. Well, there's only one consolation," said Bridget.
"What is that?" demanded Carrissima.
"Jimmy knows better. I can't tell you how, but there's the glorious fact that he does. All the evidence was against me! I suppose Jimmy is a kind of seer—oh, of course you can't help smiling at that! But, then, neither you nor any one else has the slightest idea what there is in Jimmy. Carrissima, my husband is a clever man who has the misfortune—if it is really a misfortune—to see both sides of every question too distinctly! Being a poor partisan, he appears to lack enthusiasm. But, then, I have a boundless store!"
"I begin to think," said Carrissima, "that none of us imagined all there was in you!"
"Oh, as for me," returned Bridget, "I was simply a little wretch during the few months you saw anything of me. I honestly believe that was a kind of interregnum. If you had met me while my father was alive you would have taken me for a quite different woman. All that is over and done with and for the rest—well, you will see!"
When Carrissima rose to go away Bridget clung to her hand—
"Jimmy will be immensely disappointed," she exclaimed. "I wish you would do something to console him by dining with us one evening. Our space here isn't sufficient for large parties."