"Oh, well, don't show it; that's all I ask," he said.
The view taken of the affair by Lady Grafton, whom he saw in the course of the week, was that it was his own fault for burying Caroline in the country. If he hadn't wanted her there whenever he went down to Abington she would have gone about more and met the right sort of men.
"Oh, my dear Mary!" he said. "She has been meeting what you call the right sort of men all her life. She doesn't want the life she'd lead with them. And as for saying that I've kept her down there, you know that's ridiculous. As a matter of fact it has rather worried me that she never wanted to go anywhere else, and I'd told her so."
"I suppose she had fallen in love with this youth, and didn't want to go away."
"Now you're talking more ridiculously than ever. I believe she was as much surprised as I was when she found out what had happened to her."
"That doesn't sound very likely, George. You told me once that you would know all about it when Caroline's time came; and I told you, I remember, that you wouldn't know anything about it at all. And that's what has happened."
"I suppose you want to annoy me, Mary. You can be the most exasperating of women, and I wonder James has put up with you as long as he has."
"James knows when he's well off. I've never given him a moment's uneasiness in all my blameless life. Why on earth can't you get this put off, as you did with B? You acted so wisely there; and see what a reward you have had! She has made just the right sort of marriage, and is as happy as happy can be. It's delightful to see her."
This speech had the effect of restoring his good humour. He laughed at her. "That's pretty cool, after the way you went for me last year, about B," he said.
"You're very difficult to please. I said you had been wise, as things have turned out. I didn't say I thought you so wise a year ago. If you knew anything about women you'd see how great a concession I've made in acknowledging that you were right, and I was wrong. Now there's a marriage in question much more unsatisfactory than that would have been you sit by and do nothing. You can't possibly like it, and I know quite well why you're giving in. I don't think you ought."