Forbes'--you should have seen her
stony eye--'is to _mar_, not to make. The suitable marriages make
themselves, or are made in heaven. I have nothing to do with them,
except to keep a fair field. The unsuitable marriages have to be
prevented, and will be prevented. You understand me?' 'Perfectly,' I
said. 'I understand perfectly. To _mar_ is human, and to make divine?
Thank you. Have some more jelly? No? Shall I ask for your carriage?
Good-night.' But Lady Niton won't believe a word of it! She thinks I've
only to ask and have. She'll be rude to Ettie, and I shall have to punch
her head--metaphorically. And how can you punch a person's head when
they've lent you money?"
Diana could only laugh, and commend him to his Ettie, who, to judge from
her letters, was a girl of sense, and might be trusted to get him out of
his scrape.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, Ferrier, the man of affairs, statesman, thinker, and
pessimist, found in his new friendship with Diana at once that
"agreement," that relaxation, which men of his sort can only find in the
society of those women who, without competing with them, can yet by
sympathy and native wit make their companionship abundantly worth while;
and also, a means, as it were, of vicarious amends, which he very
eagerly took.
Pages:
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474