“You can love a woman very well indeed without wanting to marry her; besides, she is married. But are you sure we’re going right?...Is this the way to the picture gallery?”
“Oh, the picture gallery, I had forgotten. We have passed it a long while.”
They turned and went back, and, in the silence, Owen considered if he had not been too abrupt. His dealings with women had always been conducted with the same honour that characterised his dealings on the turf, but he need not have informed her so early in their acquaintanceship of his vow of celibacy. While he thought how he might retrieve his slight indiscretion, she struggled in a little crisis of soul. Owen’s words, tone of voice, manner were explicit; she could not doubt that he hoped to induce her to leave her father, and she felt that s
