He paused, rather awkwardly, and Mrs. Staggchase took up the sentence
with a smile of amusement, in which there was no trace of annoyance.
She was too well aware how completely she was mistress of the
situation, in dealing with Rangely, to be either vexed or embarrassed
in talking with him.

"To be as frank with another man as I am with you?" she finished for
him. "Oh, very likely not. You have all the masculine jealousy which is
aroused in an instant by the idea that a woman should be at liberty to
like more than one man. You are half a century behind us. Marriage as
you conceive it is the old-fashioned article, for the use of families
in narrow circumstances intellectually as well as pecuniarily. Love in
a cottage is necessary, because people under those conditions can't
live unless they are extravagantly devoted to each other. Marriage with
us is just what it ought to be, an arrangement of mutual convenience.
Fred and I suit each other perfectly, and are sufficiently fond of each
other; but there are sides of his nature to which I do not answer, and
of mine that he does not touch. He finds somebody who does; I find
somebody on my part. You, for instance."

Rangely leaned back in his chair, and clasped his plump white fingers,
regarding Mrs. Staggchase with a smile of amusement and admiration.

"You are so awfully clever," was his response, "that you could really
never be uncommonly fond of anybody. You'd analyze the whole business
too closely."

She laughed slightly, and went on with what she was saying, without
heeding his interruption.