"I did, and a wholesome one, which goes to show that you may safely trust him with her for a time. Moreover, his mother has a right to him and the comfort she may find in him for a few years. You see I would be quite just to her. I do not accuse her of being designing in marrying you. No doubt it was quite your own fault. It is a position you two young people rushed into romantically and most foolishly, and you must both suffer the consequences. It is sad, but it must be regarded in the light of hard common sense, and my ungrateful task seems to be to place it in that light for both your sakes." Still David watched the hedgerows with averted face. "You are listening, David?" "Yes, mother, yes. Common sense you said." "Can't you see, that to bring her here, where she does not belong--where she never will be received as belonging, even though she is your wife--will only cause suffering to you both? Eventually misunderstandings will arise, then will come alienation and unhappiness. Then again, yours must be in a measure a public life, unless you mean to shirk responsibility. Has your country no claim on you?" "I have no thought of shirking my duty, and am prepared to think and act also--" "You wish it to be effective? Has it never occurred to you how your avenues will be cut off if you marry a wife beneath your class?" "What in God's name will my wife have to do with England's African policy? Damme--" "David!" "Mother--I beg your pardon--" "She may have everything to do with it. No man can stand alone and foist his ideas upon such a body of men, without backing. Instead of hampering yourself with an ignorant mountain girl from America, you should have allied yourself to a strong family of position here, if you would be a power in England. What sort of a Lady Thryng will your present wife make? What kind of a leader socially in your own class? You might better try to place a girl from the bogs of Ireland at the head of your table." Again David's rage surged through him in a hot wave, but he controlled himself. "You admitted Cassandra has both beauty and charm?" "Would my son have been attracted to her else? Nevertheless, what I say stands. As a help to you--" "You have done your duty, mother. I will say this for you--that for sophistry undiluted, a woman of the present day who stands where you do, can out-Greek the ancients. How is it we see so differently? Is it that I am like my father? How did he see things?" "Your father was as much a nobleman as your uncle. Only by the accident of birth was he differently placed. Did I never tell you that but for his death he would have been created bishop of his diocese? So you see--" "I see. By dying he just escaped a bishopric. Did it make a difference in his reception up above--do you think?" "Oh, David, David!"