"
"But he might carry on with her, Miss Elizabeth."
She laughed. "Do you really think that a man like Mr. Bingham would try
to flirt with girls without encouragement? Men like that are as proud
as women, and prouder; the lady must always be a step ahead. But what
is the good of talking about such a thing? It is all nonsense. Beatrice
must have been thinking of some other Geoffrey--or it was an accident of
something. Why, Mr. Davies, if you for one moment really believed that
dear Beatrice could be guilty of such a shameless thing as to carry on
a flirtation with a married man, would you have asked her to marry you?
Would you still think of asking such a woman as she must be to become
your wife?"
"I don't know; I suppose not," he said doubtfully.
"You suppose not. I know you better than you know yourself. You would
rather never marry at all than take such a woman as she would be proved
to be. But it is no good talking such stuff. If you have a rival you may
be sure it is some unmarried man."
Owen reflected in his heart that on the whole he would rather it was a
married one, since a married man, at any rate, could not legally take
possession of Beatrice.
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