"Dodo, I am going to be very frank with you. He is an instance--in a
way. I don't mean to suppose for a moment that Chesterford is jealous
of him, in fact, I know he can't be--it isn't in him; but he is a good
instance of the sort of thing that makes you tend to neglect your
husband."
"But you don't think he is an instance in particular?" demanded Dodo.
"I don't mean to bind myself in any way, but I simply want to know."
Mrs. Vivian went straight to the point:
"That is a question which you can only decide for yourself," she said.
"I cannot pretend to judge."
Dodo smiled.
"Then I will decide for myself," she said. "You see, Jack is never
dull. I daresay you may think him so, but I don't. He always manages to
amuse me, and, on the whole, the more I am amused the less bored I get
in the intervals. He tides me over the difficult places. I allow they
are difficult."
"Ah, that is exactly what you mustn't allow," said Mrs. Vivian. "You
don't seem to realise any possible deficiency in yourself."
"Oh, yes, I do," said Dodo, as if she was announcing the most
commonplace fact in the world. "I know I am deficient. I don't
appreciate devotion, I don't appreciate the quality that makes one gaze
and gaze, as it says in the hymn. It is rather frog-like that gazing;
what do you call it--batrachian. Now, Maud is batrachian. I daresay it
is a very high quality, but I don't quite live up to it. There are,
of course, heaps of excellent things one doesn't live up to, like the
accounts of the Stock Exchange in the _Times_. I fully understand that
the steadiness of stockings makes a difference to somebody, only it
doesn't make any difference to me."
"Dodo, you are incorrigible," said Mrs. Vivian, laughing in spite of
herself. "I give you up--only, do the best you can. I believe, in
the main, you agree with me. And now I must be off. You said Lord
Chesterford wished to see me. I suppose he is downstairs."
"I think I shall come too," said Dodo.
So they went down together. Lord Chesterford was in his study.
"Do you know what Mrs. Vivian has been saying to me?" remarked Dodo
placidly, as she laid her hand on his shoulder. "She has been telling
me I do not love you enough--isn't she ridiculous?"
Mrs. Vivian for the moment was nonplussed, but she recovered herself
quickly.
"Dodo is very naughty to-day," she said. "She misconstrues everything I
say."
"I don't think it's likely you said that," said he, capturing Dodo's
hand, "because it isn't true."
"I am certainly _de trop_," murmured Mrs. Vivian, turning to go.
Dodo's hand lay unresistingly in his.
"She has been so good and brave," said Lord Chesterford to Mrs. Vivian,
"she makes me feel ashamed."
Mrs. Vivian felt an immense admiration for him.
"I said you deserved a very great deal," she said, putting out her hand
to him. "I must go, my carriage has been waiting an hour."
He retained Dodo's hand, and they saw her to the door.
The footman met them in the hall.
"Mr. Broxton wants to know whether you can see him, my lady," he said
to Dodo.
"Would you like to see Jack?" she asked Chesterford.
"I would rather you told him you can't," he said.
"Of course I will," she answered. She turned to the footman. "Say I am
engaged, but he may come again to-morrow and I will see him. You don't
mind my seeing him, do you, Chesterford?"
"No, no, dear," he said.
Dodo and Chesterford turned back to the drawing-room. Jack was on the
steps.
"I thought you were engaged at this hour," Mrs. Vivian said to him.
"So I was," he answered. "Dodo asked me to come and see her."