Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman
to me for a few weeks and let me see if London can’t provide something to turn her thoughts.”
The trouble was, if you will promise not to tell any one I said so, that Phyllida’s vanity was hurt. When she was running after this young man, there was so much publicity that people began to wonder; they became spied on and whispered about; when he was summoned to Brackenbury, every one felt that now they were going to make certain of him; when he left before his time, without saying a word to her, it was naturally assumed that he had run away. Rather than believe that any man could weary of her charms, Phyllida will convince herself that I turned young Butler against her. . . Hence this terrible bitterness. . .
If you ask me whether I expected to have my offer accepted, I will frankly say “no”. I think Phyllida must enjoy surprises, for she accepted the invitation at once, though perhaps a little ungraciously and with a suggestion that, within limits, any one was welcome to her. . . Will was at home; and, though I have never been able to decide what I should think if he told me that he was going to marry his cousin, I was certainly beginning to feel that it was time for him to find a suitable wife and settle down. Will is nearly thirty, and I have always considered that a popular and good-
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