Part 31 (1/2)
”The vagueness of generalities that is G.o.dfrey,” replied Lady Tanagra.
”Now, Patricia, you must explain that 'only' at which you broke off.
You say you can imagine G.o.dfrey in love, only----”
”I think he would place it on the same plane as honour and sportsmans.h.i.+p, probably a little above both.”
Elton looked up from the bread he was crumbling, and gave Patricia a quick penetrating glance, beneath which her eyes fell.
Lady Tanagra looked at Patricia in surprise, but said nothing.
”Can you imagine Tan in love, Patricia?” enquired Bowen. ”We Bowens are notoriously backward in matters of the heart,” he added.
”I shall fall in love when the man comes along who--who----” Lady Tanagra paused.
”Will compel you,” said Patricia, concluding the sentence.
Again Elton looked quickly across at her.
”What do you mean?” demanded Lady Tanagra.
”I think,” said Patricia deliberately, ”that you are too primitive to fall in love. You would have to be stormed, carried away by force, and wooed afterwards.”
”It doesn't sound very respectable, does it?” said Lady Tanagra thoughtfully, then turning to Bowen she demanded, ”Peter, would you allow me to be carried away by force, stormed, and wooed afterwards?”
”I think, Tanagra, you sometimes forget that your atmosphere is too exotic for most men,” said Elton.
”G.o.dfrey,” said Lady Tanagra reproachfully, ”I have had quite a lot of proposals, and I won't be denied my successes.”
”We were talking about love, not offers of marriage,” said Elton with a smile.
”Cynic,” cried Lady Tanagra. ”You imply that the men who have proposed to me wanted my money and not myself.”
”Suppose, Tanagra, there were a right man,” said Patricia, ”and he was poor and honourable. What then?”
”I suppose I should have to ask him to marry me,” said Lady Tanagra dubiously.
”But, Tan, we've just decided,” said Bowen, ”that you have to be carried away by force, and cannot love until force has been applied.”
”I think I've had enough of this conversation,” said Lady Tanagra.
”You're trying to prove that I'm either going to lose my reputation, or die an old maid, and I'm not so sure that you're wrong, about the old maid, I mean,” she added. ”I shall depend upon you, G.o.dfrey, then,”
she said, turning to Elton, ”and we will hobble about the Park together on Sunday mornings, comparing notes upon rheumatism and gout. Ugh!”
She looked deliberately round the table, from one to the other. ”Has it ever struck you what we shall look like when we grow very old?” she asked.
”No one need ever grow old,” said Patricia.
”How can you prevent it?” asked Bowen.
”There is morphia and the fountain of eternal youth,” suggested Elton.