Being, when she chose, a clear-
sighted young woman, she realized this, but she also knew that Francis
Sales would find the obvious meaning in the blow. For herself, she
sanely determined to blot that episode from her mind: it was maddening
to think of it as an insult and dangerous to remember its delight, and
she was able calmly to tell her aunts that Mr. Sales had seen her
home.
'Then why didn't he come in?' Caroline asked with a grunt. 'Leaving
you on the doorstep like a housemaid!'
'He only came as far as the bridge.'
'My dear child! What was he thinking of? Men are not what they were,
or is it the women who are different? They haven't the charm! They
haven't the old charm! My difficulty was always to get rid of the
creatures. I'm disappointed in you, Henrietta.'
'But he's married,' Henrietta said gravely. 'I only needed him on the
dark roads and I should think he wanted to go back to Mrs. Sales.'
'It would be the first time, then,' Caroline said.
'Why, isn't he fond of her?'
'Don't ask dangerous questions, child--and would you be fond of her
yourself?'
'She's very pretty.'
'Now, Caroline, don't,' Sophia begged.
Caroline chuckled. 'Don't what?'
'Say what you were going to say.'
Caroline chuckled again. 'I can't help it. My tongue won't be tied.
I'm like all the Malletts--'
'But not before the child.'
'You're a prude, Sophia, and if Henrietta imagines that a man like
Francis Sales, any man worth his salt--besides, Henrietta has knocked
about the world.
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