She simply could not
see it.
Into this really terrible position of strain, from which there
appeared to be no issue, the Kilsyte case came almost as a relief.
It is part of the peculiar irony of things that Edward would
certainly never have kissed that nurse-maid if he had not been
trying to please Leonora. Nurse-maids do not travel first-class,
and, that day, Edward travelled in a third-class carriage in order to
prove to Leonora that he was capable of economies. I have said
that the Kilsyte case came almost as a relief to the strained
situation that then existed between them. It gave Leonora an
opportunity of backing him up in a whole-hearted and absolutely
loyal manner. It gave her the opportunity of behaving to him as he
considered a wife should behave to her husband.
You see, Edward found himself in a railway carriage with a quite
pretty girl of about nineteen. And the quite pretty girl of about
nineteen, with dark hair and red cheeks and blue eyes, was quietly
weeping. Edward had been sitting in his corner thinking about
nothing at all. He had chanced to look at the nurse-maid; two
large, pretty tears came out of her eyes and dropped into her lap.
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