And it would have been all the better if she drank; he would have
been kept busy looking after her.

I know that I am right in this. I know it because of the Kilsyte case.
You see, the servant girl that he then kissed was nurse in the
family of the Nonconformist head of the county--whatever that
post may be called. And that gentleman was so determined to ruin
Edward, who was the chairman of the Tory caucus, or whatever it
is--that the poor dear sufferer had the very devil of a time. They
asked questions about it in the House of Commons; they tried to
get the Hampshire magistrates degraded; they suggested to the War
Ministry that Edward was not the proper person to hold the King's
commission. Yes, he got it hot and strong.

The result you have heard. He was completely cured of
philandering amongst the lower classes. And that seemed a real
blessing to Leonora. It did not revolt her so much to be
connected--it is a sort of connection--with people like Mrs
Maidan, instead of with a little kitchenmaid.

In a dim sort of way, Leonora was almost contented when she
arrived at Nauheim, that evening. . . .

She had got things nearly straight by the long years of scraping in
little stations in Chitral and Burma--stations where living is cheap
in comparison with the life of a county magnate, and where,
moreover, liaisons of one sort or another are normal and
inexpensive too. So that, when Mrs Maidan came along--and the
Maidan affair might have caused trouble out there because of the
youth of the husband--Leonora had just resigned herself to coming