"Well, darling, I'm glad you haven't been so careful as all that, with me. You can quite safely tell me everything. It wouldn't be nice of you to pretend before me. I might think it very splendid of you, but I shouldn't love you more for it. I'm quite ready to back you up in keeping what you really think from Caroline."
He felt the ground slipping from beneath his feet. "What does Dick say about it?" he asked. "Can't he see anything in Maurice that all the world can't see?"
"He thinks he is very nice; but of course he doesn't look upon him as a suitable husband for Caroline. He doesn't think you can either, and he can't make out why you don't try to stop it. You did with me--before--and we've never ceased blessing you for it."
"I didn't try to stop it with you because that fellow--I suppose you've no objection to my calling him that--"
"You can call him what you like, darling."
"Well, I didn't object to him because he hadn't got enough money. That's about what it would come to here."
"Oh, no, it isn't, darling. And you don't think it is either."
"Oh, if you can't talk about it sensibly, B, we'd better chuck it." He rose from the table.
She rose too and slipped her arm into his as they went into the other room, and laughed at him. "I think it's awfully sweet of you to want to make the best of it," she said. "I won't worry you any more, darling, if you're certain that nothing _can_ stop it."
"Well, you ought to be able to see it as I do. You know what Caroline is. She wouldn't give her love, and take it away again when the sort of objections that you feel towards Maurice are pointed out to her. She's faced all that, and it doesn't matter to her. She sees a lot more in him than you can, or than I've been able to; though I tell you that there _is_ a lot in him, and _I'm_ quite ready to accept him. So you--and Dick--ought to make the effort too."
They were standing together before the fire, her arm still in his. Her face was graver, as she said: "Caroline is different to me. That's quite true."
"I haven't meant anything I've said to reflect on you."
"I know, darling. But you wouldn't treat it like that if it were me, all the same. Well, of course we shall be as nice about it as ever we can, and if he does turn into something that makes him more equal to Caroline it will be all the easier. It's quite beyond me to think of him as her equal now, Dad, so you mustn't expect me to do it."