She said quietly:  “If Valerie West is a girl really sincere and meriting your respect, she will face this matter as you face it.”

“Yes—­she would do that,” he said, thoughtfully.

“Then I think that the sooner you explain matters to her—­”

He laughed:  “I don’t have to explain anything to her, Lily.”

“What do you mean?”

“She knows how things stand.  She is perfectly aware of your world’s attitude toward her.  She has not the slightest intention of forcing herself on you, or of asking your indulgence or your charity.”

“You mean, then, that she desires to separate you from your family—­from your friends—­”

“No,” he said wearily, “she does not desire that, either.”

His sister’s troubled eyes rested on him in silence for a while; then: 

“I know she is beautiful; I am sure she is good, Louis—­good in—­in her own way—­worthy, in her own fashion.  But, dear, is that all that you, a Neville, require of the woman who is to bear your name—­bear your children?”

“She is all I require—­and far more.”

“Dear, you are utterly blinded by your infatuation!”

“You do not know her.”

“Then let me!” exclaimed Mrs. Collis desperately.  “Let me meet her, Louis—­let me talk with her—­”

“No....  And I’ll tell you why, Lily; it’s because she does not care to meet you.”

“What!”

“I have told you the plain truth.  She sees no reason for knowing you, or for knowing my parents, or any woman in a world that would never tolerate her, never submit to her entrance, never receive her as one of them!—­a world that might shrug and smile and endure her as my wife—­and embitter my life forever.”

As he spoke he was not aware that he merely repeated Valerie’s own words; he remained still unconscious that his decision was in fact merely her decision; that his entire attitude had become hers because her nature and her character were as yet the stronger.

But in his words his sister’s quick intelligence perceived a logic and a conclusion entirely feminine and utterly foreign to her brother’s habit of mind.  And she realised with a thrill of fear that she had to do, not with her brother, but with a woman who was to be reckoned with.

“Do you—­or does Miss West think it likely that I am a woman to wound, to affront another—­no matter who she may be?  Surely, Louis, you could have told her very little about me—­”

“I never mention you to her.”

Lily caught her breath.

“Why?”

“Why should I?”

“That is unfair, Louis!  She has the right to know about your own family—­otherwise how can she understand the situation?”

“It’s like all situations, isn’t it?  You and father and mother have your own arbitrary customs and traditions and standards of respectability.  You rule out whom you choose.  Valerie West knows perfectly well that you would rule her out.  Why should she give you the opportunity?”