"I'll be wherever you want me and whenever," she replied.... "We might go away for a time," she suggested.
"I'll go if you want very much but it doesn't appeal to me. It will only postpone, by the length of our absence, my restoration to--good standing!" she smiled.
"Yes--among my friends--to the end that I may learn who they are."
"You may have some bad quarters-of-an-hour, and receive some shocks beside," her mother cautioned.
"Let them come--I've received enough shocks already to make me _immune_. It will be amusing, diverting, serve to make the time pass more rapidly."
"My child!" said Mrs. Mourraille kindly. "You don't appreciate just what you are saying."
"I do, mother dear, and what it means also. I have to face it, so I may as well get out of it what I can, and meet it with a smile. I may be wrong, but to my mind there is nothing like indifference for such a situation."
"That is the best way to look at it, if you can--but can you? Can you be philosophical under the slights, and snubs, and bitter tongues?"
"I think I can--at least, I mean to try," said Stephanie quietly. "With Gladys Chamberlain and Pendleton and Burgoyne, I'm not alone. They will stand by me--if I don't offend again.... And you need not fear, dear," answering her mother's look; "I'm not going to Amherst-it again--with any man."
"Have you seen the afternoon papers?" Mrs. Mourraille asked.
"You mean--about Amherst and Mrs. Amherst? No, but Montague told me of it. It's better so--there is only one of us now for Society to get accustomed to. Moreover, his peace is made, and for him the rest is easy."
"It is always easy for the man," Mrs. Mourraille observed.
"Yes--and I can understand: his sin is not so scarlet--it's not continuing, so to speak. Ended it is ended. We women have got used to the social evil in the man, but we can't get used to it in the woman. The ethics of it are a thing apart--good to theorize over, but it is the practical view that controls and will control in my case. I realize that I have nothing to hope for from the equitable argument. I'm a woman--I know what to expect from the women. I'm not blaming them. I've no one but myself to blame. Man and woman may be equal before the law where men are the judges, but they are not equal in Society's Court where women are the judges. I shall get small show there, mother dear, small show there! With rare exceptions we women are cruel and bigoted toward our sex, with all the characteristics of cruelty and bigotry on parade." She kissed the elder very fondly. "Now go or I shall not be dressed for dinner." ... "I suppose," she added, "there won't be any guests."