'Well, her companion there is perfectly competent to give her one. Don't think I have the least desire to push them into each other's arms; I only ask to wash my hands of them. But I should like to know why you want, as you said just now, to save him. When you speak as if your daughter were a monster I take it that you are not serious.'
She was facing me there in the twilight, and to let me know that she was more serious perhaps than she had ever been in her life she had only to look at me awhile without protestation. 'It's Linda's standard. God knows I myself could get on! She is ambitious, luxurious, determined to have what she wants, more than any one I have ever seen. Of course it's open to you to tell me that it's my fault, that I was so before her and have made her so. But does that make me like it any better?'
'Dear Mrs. Pallant, you are most extraordinary,' I stammered, infinitely surprised and not a little pained.
'Oh yes, you have made up your mind about me; you see me in a certain way and you don't like the trouble of changing. Votre siège est fait. But you will have to change—if you have any generosity!' Her eyes shone in the summer dusk and she looked remarkably handsome.
'Is this a part of the reparation, of the expiation?' I inquired. 'I don't see what you ever did to Archie.'
'It's enough that he belongs to you. But it isn't for you that I do it; it's for myself,' she went on.
'Doubtless you have your own reasons, which I can't penetrate. But can't you sacrifice something else?—must you sacrifice your child?'
