And she repeated to
Edward in every possible tone that the girl did not love him; that
the girl detested him for his brutality, his overbearingness, his
drinking habits. She pointed out that Edward in the girl's eyes, was
already pledged three or four deep. He was pledged to Leonora
herself, to Mrs Basil, and to the memories of Maisie Maidan and
to Florence. Edward never said anything.
Did the girl love Edward, or didn't she? I don't know. At that time I
daresay she didn't though she certainly had done so before Leonora
had got to work upon his reputation. She certainly had loved him
for what I call the public side of his record--for his good
soldiering, for his saving lives at sea, for the excellent landlord
that he was and the good sportsman. But it is quite possible that
all those things came to appear as nothing in her eyes when she
discovered that he wasn't a good husband. For, though women, as
I see them, have little or no feeling of responsibility towards a
county or a country or a career--although they may be entirely
lacking in any kind of communal solidarity--they have an
immense and automatically working instinct that attaches them to
the interest of womanhood.
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