She nodded, without glancing in his direction, and left the room. The maid arranged the tea-tray and departed. Hester showed no signs of being aware that anything unusual had happened. She made a little desultory conversation. Mannering answered in monosyllables.
When at last he put his cup down he rose to go.
"You are quite sure, Hester," he said. "You have made up your mind?"
"You know that I am right," she answered, quietly. "The life you offer me would be paradise, but I dare not even think of it. I may not do any good here, perhaps I don't, but I can't come away."
"You are a true daughter of your sex," he said, smiling. "The keynote of your life must be sacrifice."
"Perhaps we are not so unwise, after all," she answered, "for I think that there are more happy women in the world than men."
"There are more, I think, who deserve to be, dear," he answered, holding her hand for a moment. "Good-bye!"
Mannering walked in somewhat abstracted fashion to the corner of the street, and signalled for a hansom. With his foot upon the step he hesitated.
"The perfect man," the Duchess murmured, as she stirred her tea, "does not exist. I know a dozen perfect women, dear, dull creatures, and plenty of men who know how to cover up the flaw. But there is something in the composition of the male sex which keeps them always a little below the highest pinnacle."
"It is purely a matter of concealment," her friend declared. "Women are cleverer humbugs than men."
"I know your perfect woman!" he remarked, softly. "You search for her through the best years of your life, and when you have found her you avoid her. That," he added, handing his empty cup to a footman, "is why I am a bachelor."
"My dear Sir Leslie," she said, "I am afraid you will have to find a better reason for your miserable state. The perfect woman would certainly have nothing to do with you if you found her."
"On the contrary," he declared, confidently, "I am convinced that she would find me attractive."
"Your theory," she declared, "is antiquated. Like and unlike do not attract. We seek in others the qualities which we strive most zealously to develop in ourselves. I know a case in point."
"Good!" Sir Leslie remarked. "I like examples. The logic of them appeals to me."