Mrs. Mallowe did not offer Mrs. Hauksbee any pity or ask her to lie down, but gave her another cup of tea, and went on with the talk.
“I've been through that too, dear,” she said.
“I remember,” said Mrs. Hauksbee, a gleam of fun on her face. “In '84 wasn't it? You went out a great deal less next season.”
Mrs. Mallowe smiled in a superior and Sphinxlike fashion.
“Good gracious, child, you didn't join the Theosophists and kiss Buddha's big toe, did you? I tried to get into their set once, but they cast me out for a skeptic--without a chance of improving my poor little mind, too.”
“No, I didn't Theosophilander. Jack says”--
“Never mind Jack. What a husband says is known before. What did you do?”
“So have I--for four months. But that didn't console me in the least. I hated the man. Will you stop smiling in that inscrutable way and tell me what you mean?”
“And--you--mean--to--say that it is absolutely Platonic on both sides?”
“Absolutely, or I should never have taken it up.”
“And you warned him against the Topsham girl?”
“And told him of Sir Dugald Delane's private memo about him?”
“What a question to ask a woman! Because it amused me at first. I am proud of my property now. If I live he shall continue to be successful. Yes, I will put him upon the straight road to Knighthood, and everything else that a man values. The rest depends upon himself.”
“Polly, you are a most extraordinary woman.”
“Not in the least. I'm concentrated, that's all. You diffuse yourself, dear; and though all Simla knows your skill in managing a team”--
“Team, of half a dozen, from The Mussuck to the Hawley Boy, you gain nothing by it. Not even amusement.”
“Try my recipe. Take a man, not a boy, mind, but an almost mature, unattached man, and be this guide, philosopher, and friend. You'll find it the most interesting occupation that you ever embarked on. It can be done--you needn't look like that--because I've done it.”
“There's an element of risk about it that makes the notion attractive. I'll get such a man and say to him, 'Now, understand that there must be no flirtation. Do exactly what I tell you, profit by my instruction and counsels, and all will yet be well,' as Toole says. Is that the idea?”
“More or less,” said Mrs. Mallowe with an unfathomable smile. “But be sure he understands that there must be no flirtation.”