Egypt as an excuse for finally withdrawing."

"You think Alex is more to blame than Horringford?" said Miss
Craven, with a note of challenge in her voice.

Peters shrugged. "I blame them both. But above all I blame the
system that has been responsible for the trouble."

"You mean that Alex should have been allowed to choose her own
husband? She was such a child--"

"And Horringford was such a devil of a good match," interposed
Craven cynically, moving from his chair to the padded fireguard.
Gillian was sitting on the arm of Miss Craven's chair, sorting the
patience cards into a leather case. She looked up quickly. "I
thought that in England all girls choose their own husbands, that
they marry to please themselves, I mean," she said in a puzzled
voice.

"Theoretically they do, my dear," replied Miss Craven, "in
practice numbers do not. The generality of girls settle their own
futures and choose their own husbands. But there are still many
old-fashioned people who arrogate to themselves the right of
settling their daughters' lives, who have so trained them that
resistance to family wishes becomes almost an impossibility. A
good suitor presents himself, parental pressure is brought to
bear--and the deed is done. Witness the case of Alex. In a few
years she probably would have chosen for herself, wisely. As it
was, marriage had never entered her head."