“She might have been honest with me and told me the truth.”
“She thought of that – but she was certain – because we both expected you to be very – old that you would not understand – and would insist on her waiting conventionally for perhaps – a year before you would – allow her to be married.”
“It would certainly be an extraordinarily heartless action on the Guardian’s part,” Lord Kiniston said dryly.
“That is what they were – afraid you would – say,” Alecia said, “but now they are married – and you can do – nothing about it.”
“I must accept that,” Lord Kiniston replied. “But there still remains the problem of you. I want you to tell me why you acquiesced in acting a lie, which seems somehow alien to your nature.”
“I-I think Mama – too, would have been shocked,” Alecia said, “except
