"
"Laura, my dear--"
"Well."
"You won't be angry if I speak out?"
"Certainly not. After what I have said, you have a right to speak
out."
"It seems to me that all your reasons are reasons why he should marry
me;--not reasons why I should marry him."
"Is not his love for you a reason?"
"No," said Violet, pausing,--and speaking the word in the lowest
possible whisper. "If he did not love me, that, if known to me,
should be a reason why I should not marry him. Ten men may love
me,--I don't say that any man does--"
"He does."
"But I can't marry all the ten. And as for that business of saving
him--"
"You know what I mean!"
"I don't know that I have any special mission for saving young men. I
sometimes think that I shall have quite enough to do to save myself.
It is strange what a propensity I feel for the wrong side of the
post."
"I feel the strongest assurance that you will always keep on the
right side."
"Thank you, my dear. I mean to try, but I'm quite sure that the
jockey who takes me in hand ought to be very steady himself. Now,
Lord Chiltern--"
"Well,--out with it. What have you to say?"
"He does not bear the best reputation in this world as a steady man.
Is he altogether the sort of man that mammas of the best kind are
seeking for their daughters? I like a roue myself;--and a prig who
sits all night in the House, and talks about nothing but church-rates
and suffrage, is to me intolerable.
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