Well, Florence would come to Leonora with some
such proposition. I do not mean to say that she put it baldly, like
that. She stood out that she was not Edward's mistress until
Leonora said that she had seen Edward coming out of her room at
an advanced hour of the night. That checked Florence a bit; but
she fell back upon her "heart" and stuck out that she had merely
been conversing with Edward in order to bring him to a better
frame of mind. Florence had, of course, to stick to that story; for
even Florence would not have had the face to implore Leonora to
grant her favours to Edward if she had admitted that she was
Edward's mistress. That could not be done. At the same time
Florence had such a pressing desire to talk about something. There
would have been nothing else to talk about but a rapprochement
between that estranged pair. So Florence would go on babbling
and Leonora would go on brushing her hair. And then Leonora
would say suddenly something like:
"I should think myself defiled if Edward touched me now that he
has touched you."
That would discourage Florence a bit; but after a week or so, on
another morning she would have another try.
And even in other things Leonora deteriorated.
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