Later in the evening she communicated the astonishing news to Mrs. Hilary, who ejaculated freely: "Only fancy!" and "How very extraordinary!"
"Didn't you think he had been dead a hundred years?" exclaimed Mrs. Pendleton.
"One never can tell in the states," responded Mrs. Hilary conservatively. "Divorce is so common over here. It isn't the thing at all in England, you know."
Mrs. Pendleton stared.
"But they were not divorced, only separated. Do you never do that—in England?"
"Divorced people are not received at court, you know," explained Mrs. Hilary.
Mrs. Pendleton's glance lingered upon the Englishwoman's immobile face and a laugh broke into her words.
"But when you are in Rome, you do as the Romans—is that it, Mrs. Hilary?" But the shot glanced off harmlessly from the thick armor of British literalness.
"In Rome divorce doesn't exist at all," she graciously informed her companion. "The Romish church does not permit it, you know."
The American woman looked at the Englishwoman more in sorrow than in anger.