Ideas might have changed, but _they_ had not.
Since the last time they had curtsied to the beloved late Queen, in
about 1879, she believed new rules had been made, but the La Sarthe had
nothing to do with such things!
Halcyone caught Miss Roberta's piteous, subdued eye, and smiled a
tender, kind smile. With years her understanding of her ancient aunts
had grown. They were no longer rather contemptible, narrow-minded elders
in her eyes, but filled her with a pitiful and gentle respect. Their
courage under adversity, their firm self-control, and the force which
made them live up to their idea of the fitness of things, appealed to
her strongly. She had John Derringham's quality of detached
consideration, and appreciated her old relatives as exquisite relics of
the past, as well as her own kith and kin.
"In America, divorce is not considered the heinous crime it was once in
England," Mr. Carlyon said. "Perhaps this lady may have been greatly
sinned against and deserves all our pity and regard."
But Miss La Sarthe remained obdurate. The point was not as to who was in
the right, she explained, but that certain conventions, laid down by one
whose memory was revered, had been outraged, and she could never permit
her sister or Halcyone to have any intercourse with the tenant of
Wendover Park!
The preparations for the new arrival went on apace all the autumn and
winter.
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