"
"I do admit that, and that is why I shall make no row about the wine;
I shall set it down as compensation to Lavinia. She is capable of
telling me that she drank it all herself. Think of the inconceivable
bad taste, in the circumstances, of that fellow making free with the
house--or coming there at all! If that doesn't describe him, he is
indescribable."
"His plan is to get what he can. Lavinia will have supported him for
a year," said Mrs. Almond. "It's so much gained."
"She will have to support him for the rest of his life, then!" cried
the Doctor. "But without wine, as they say at the tables d'hote."
"Catherine tells me he has set up a business, and is making a great
deal of money."
The Doctor stared. "She has not told me that--and Lavinia didn't
deign. Ah!" he cried, "Catherine has given me up. Not that it
matters, for all that the business amounts to."
"She has not given up Mr. Townsend," said Mrs. Almond. "I saw that
in the first half minute. She has come home exactly the same."
"Exactly the same; not a grain more intelligent. She didn't notice a
stick or a stone all the while we were away--not a picture nor a
view, not a statue nor a cathedral."
"How could she notice? She had other things to think of; they are
never for an instant out of her mind. She touches me very much."
"She would touch me if she didn't irritate me. That's the effect she
has upon me now.
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