It would be true as far as it went--
Mrs. Wilkins asserted that it would be quite true, but Mrs. Arbuthnot
thought it wouldn't be quite--and it was the only way, Mrs. Wilkins
said, to keep Mellersh even approximately quiet. To spend any of her
money just on the mere getting to Italy would cause him indignation;
what he would say if he knew she was renting part of a mediaeval castle
on her own account Mrs. Wilkins preferred not to think. It would take
him days to say it all; and this although it was her very own money,
and not a penny of it had ever been his.
"But I expect," she said, "your husband is just the same. I
expect all husbands are alike in the long run."
Mrs. Arbuthnot said nothing, because her reason for not wanting
Frederick to know was the exactly opposite one--Frederick would by only
to pleased for her to go, he would not mind it in the very least;
indeed, he would hail such a manifestation of self-indulgence and
worldliness with an amusement that would hurt, and urge her to have a
good time and not to hurry home with a crushing detachment. Far
better, she thought, to be missed by Mellersh than to be sped by
Frederick. To be missed, to be needed, from whatever motive, was, she
thought, better than the complete loneliness of not being missed or
needed at all.
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