She
herself was a rather stimulating instance of modern ethical
problems. She told him something of her own story, and then their
common topics narrowed down very abruptly. He found he could help
her in several ways. There is, unhappily, a disposition on the part
of many people, who ought to know better, to regard a role played by
Joseph during his earlier days in Egypt as a ridiculous one. This
point of view became very inopportunely dominant in Benham's mind
when he was lunching TETE A TETE with Mrs. Skelmersdale at her
flat. . . .
The ensuing intimacy was of an entirely concealed and respectable
nature, but a certain increased preoccupation in his manner set Lady
Marayne thinking. He had as a matter of fact been taken by surprise.
Still he perceived that it is no excuse for a man that he has been
taken by surprise. Surprises in one's own conduct ought not to
happen. When they do happen then an aristocrat ought to stick to
what he had done. He was now in a subtle and complicated
relationship to Mrs. Skelmersdale, a relationship in which her pride
had become suddenly a matter of tremendous importance.
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