Jane told her family that she was going to marry Gideon.  Lady Pinkerton said, ’It’s extraordinary to me that you can think of it, Jane, after all that has happened.  Surely, my child, the fact that it was the last thing Oliver would wish should have some weight with you.  Whatever plane he may be on now, he must be disturbed by such news as this.  Besides, dear child, it is far too soon.  You should wait at least a year before taking such a step.  And Arthur Gideon!  Not only a Jew, Jane, and not only a man of such very unfortunate political principles, but one who has never attempted to conceal his spiteful hostility both to father’s papers and my books.  But perhaps, as I believe you agree with him in despising both of these, that may be an extra bond between you.  Only you must see that it will make family life extremely awkward.’

Of course it would.  But family lives nearly always are awkward, Jane thought; it is one of the things about them.

Lady Pinkerton added, having suddenly remembered it, ’Besides, my dear, he drinks; you told me so yourself.’

Jane said, if she had, she had lied, doubtless for some good reason now forgotten by her.  He didn’t drink, not in the excessive sense of that word obviously intended by Lady Pinkerton.  Lady Pinkerton was unconvinced; she still was sure he drank in that sense.

She resumed, ’And Jewish babies!  I wonder you can think of it, Jane.  They may be a throw-back to a most degraded Russian-Jewish type.  What brothers and sisters for the dear mite who is coming first!  My dear, I do beg you to think this over long and seriously before committing yourself.  You may live to repent it bitterly.’

Clare said, ‘Jane!  How can you—­after ...’

After Oliver, she meant.  She would never say his name; perhaps one doesn’t like to when one has killed a man.

Jane thought, ’Why didn’t I leave Oliver to Clare?  She’d have suited him much better.  I was stupid; I thought I wanted him.  I did want him.  But not in the way I want Arthur now.  One wants so many things.’

Lord Pinkerton said, ’You’re making a big mistake, Babs.  That fellow won’t last.  He’s building on sand, as the Bible puts it—­building on sand.  I hear on good authority that the Fact can’t go on many months longer, unless it changes its tone and methods considerably; it’s got no chance of fighting its way as it is now.  People don’t want that kind of thing.  They don’t want anything the Gideon lot will give them.  Gideon and his sort haven’t got the goods.  They’re building on the sand of their own fancy, not on the rock of general human demand.  I hear that that daily they talked of starting can’t come off yet, either....  The chap’s a bad investment, Babs....  And he despises me and my goods, you know.  That’ll be awkward.’

’Not you, daddy.  The papers, he does.  He rather likes you, though he doesn’t approve of you....  He doesn’t like mother, and she doesn’t like him.  But people often don’t get on with their mothers-in-law.’