It was part of her abnormality
that she could let such things go by in a detached silence, which did
not express even the germ of comment or opinion upon them. This, he
said, was the result of her beastly sense of security, which, in its
turn, was the result of the atmosphere of wealth she had breathed since
her birth. There had been no obstacle which could not be removed for
her, no law of limitation had laid its rein on her neck. She had not
been taught by her existence the importance of propitiating opinion.
Under such conditions, how was fear to be learned? She had not learned
it. But for the devil in the blue between her lashes, he realised that
he should have broken loose long ago.
"I suppose I deserved that for making a stupid appeal to sympathy," he
remarked. "I will not do it again."
If she had been the woman who can be gently goaded into reply, she
would have made answer to this. But she allowed the observation to
pass, giving it free flight into space, where it lost itself after the
annoying manner of its kind.
"Have you any objection to telling me why you decided to come to England
this year?" he inquired, with a casual air, after the pause which she
did not fill in.
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