Page:Neith Boyce--The bond.djvu/66

64 "Well, why do you see him again? Such a man is unfit for decent society. If he can't or won't conquer his vile habit, surely it's too much to expect a woman to be his friend. And a young woman, too—really, Teresa. I don't think it's at all proper for you. I suppose he is one of Basil's friends?"

"Yes—but he is mine too, now. And yet he's slipping away from us. In just this year I've known him, I've seen him going down. And I did think—for three months now he's been quite straight—and now, to-night"

Her voice faltered.

"It's a shame. You say you were with him this afternoon—and he actually told you?"

"Oh, I guessed—I couldn't help knowing, from his looks—and he confessed it."

"Teresa, you know too much of such things! Basil ought to shelter you from such knowledge as that—he ought not to allow"

Teresa laughed. Aunt Sophy usually argued that the husband's authority was a relic of barbarism, not to be recognised by any woman of spirit.

"Basil doesn't believe in sheltering me," she said. "And you know you said only the other day, Aunt Sophy, that the day of the clinging vine was over, and that the pretence of keeping a strong right arm between us and the world"