Page 73 - 401_

72

“He’s penniless and you’re rich. You can’t be such a besotted
fool as not to see that he’s marrying you for your money.”
Jane remained perfectly composed. She observed her sister-in-
law’s agitation with detachment.
“I don’t think he is, you know,” she replied. “I think he’s very
fond of me.”
“You’re an old woman, Jane.”
“I’m the same age as you are, Marion,” she smiled.
“I’ve never let myself go. I’m very young for my age. No one
would think I was more than forty. But even I wouldn’t dream of
marrying a boy twenty years younger than myself.”
“Twenty-seven,” corrected Jane.
“Do you mean to tell me that you can bring yourself to believe
that it’s possible for a young man to care for a woman old enough to
be his mother?”
“I’ve lived very much in the country for many years. I daresay
there’s a great deal about human nature that I don’t know. They tell
me there’s a man called Freud, an Austrian, I believe —“
But Mrs. Tower interrupted her without any politeness at all.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Jane, it’s so undignified. It’s so
ungraceful. I always thought you were a sensible woman. Really
you’re the last person I should ever have thought likely to fall in love
with a boy.”
“But I’m not in love with him. I’ve told him that. Of course I
like him very much or I wouldn’t think of marrying him. I thought it
only fair to tell him quite plainly what my feelings were towards
him.”
Mrs. Tower gasped. The blood rushed to her head and her
breathing oppressed her. She had no fan, but she seized the evening
paper and vigorously fanned herself with it.
“If you’re not in love with him why do you want to marry
him?”
“I’ve been a widow a very long time and I’ve led a very quiet
life. I thought I’d like a change.”
“If you want to marry just to be married why don’t you marry a
man of your own age?”
“No man of my own age has asked me five times. In fact no
man of my own age has asked me at all.”