"They're a pack of rotters and they
couldn't understand. They'd cut her, even if she is a cousin or whatever
it is. I've give a year or two of my life to know positively whether
Rodney intends taking those shares or not." He said it in contemplative
delight in what he would do if it were definitely settled. "I can't
stand them much longer."
"What great variety of Americans there are," she reflected. "Mrs.
Medcroft and her sister are Americans. Compare them with the Rodneys and
Mr. Ulstervelt. No, Carney, I'll not start a scandal. The Rodneys would
not understand, as you say. They'd tear her to shreds and gloat over
the mutilation. No; we'll have her to see us in London. I like her."
"And, by Jove, Agatha, I like her sister."
"My dear, the baby is a darling."
"But what an ass Medcroft is!"
And thus is it proved that Mrs. Odell-Carney was not only a dutiful wife
in taking her husband into her confidence, but also that jointly they
enjoyed a peculiarly rational outlook upon the world as they had come to
know it and to feel for the people thereof. It is of small consequence
that they could not find it in their power to be in tune with the
virtuous Rodneys: the Rodneys were conditions, not effects.
However that may be, it was Katherine Rodney, pretty, plump, and
spoiled, who pulled the first stone from the foundation of Medcroft's
house of cards. Katherine had convinced herself that she was deeply
enamoured of the volatile Freddie; the more she thought that she loved
him, the greater became the conviction that he did not care as much for
her as he professed.
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