The New Woman Part 54

ARMSTRONG.

This way, my lady. I'll send Margery to you.

[_Exit ARMSTRONG, R._

COLONEL.

This must be put right, Caroline.

LADY WARGRAVE.

I mean to put it right.

COLONEL [_severely_].

A Cazenove living apart from his wife!

LADY WARGRAVE.

It is sad--very sad.

COLONEL.

More than that, Caroline--it's not respectable.

LADY WARGRAVE.

That doesn't trouble _you._

COLONEL.

It shocks me. The inst.i.tution of marriage is the foundation of society; and whatever tends to cast discredit on that holy "ordnance"

saps the moral fibre of the community.

LADY WARGRAVE.

Did you say, "ordnance?"

COLONEL.

I did say, "ordnance." It was a slip of the tongue.

LADY WARGRAVE.

You are not used to ordinances.

COLONEL.

What do you mean, Caroline? Wasn't I baptized--wasn't I confirmed?

LADY WARGRAVE.

There is another ceremony which, during a somewhat long career, you have systematically avoided.

COLONEL.

A mere sin of omission, which even now it is not too late to repair. I am a young man still----

LADY WARGRAVE.

Young man?

COLONEL.

Comparatively. And everything in the world is comparative. What cannot be undone in the past can at least be avoided in the future.

LADY WARGRAVE.

What is the matter with you, Theodore? You have suddenly become quite a moral martinet, and have developed such a severity of aspect that I scarcely know my own brother.

COLONEL [_aside_].

Shall I tell her? Dare I? Courage!

LADY WARGRAVE.

I think I liked you better as you were. At any rate, I was used to you.

COLONEL.

How peaceful it is here, Caroline--how sylvan!

LADY WARGRAVE.

Yes, it's a pretty little place enough.

COLONEL.

It might have been created expressly for the exchange of those sacred confidences which are never more becoming than when shared between a brother and a sister.

LADY WARGRAVE.

Good gracious! you are growing quite sentimental! I have no confidences to make.

COLONEL.

But _I_ have.

LADY WARGRAVE.