"Charlie didn't wish me to tell you about it just yet."
"And why not?"
"He said we were both old enough to know our own minds, and we ought to be quite sure that we really and truly suited each other before we talked about it. But we are both sure now."
"I think he has behaved very badly—almost wickedly."
"How can you say that, mother?"
"I say it emphatically. He is a man of the world—and he had no right to allow you to act so foolishly."
But Enid appeared not to understand her mother's meaning. She could not measure the enormity of her conduct when indulging in those train-journeys and museum-wanderings. She admitted everything; she was ashamed of nothing.
"Surely," said Mrs. Thompson, "you could see that a girl of your age cannot do such things without malicious people saying unkind things?"
"When one is in love, one cannot trouble to think what malicious people will say."
In fact Enid seemed to believe that she and Mr. Kenion had created a small universe of their own, into which no one else had a right to push themselves.