The result, she was honest enough
to own, might have been better--who knows? She did not disguise from
herself that Terence had faults. She was inclined to think him too easy
and tolerant, just as he was inclined to think her perhaps a trifle
hard--no, it was rather that she was uncompromising. In some ways she
found St. John preferable; but then, of course, he would never have
suited Rachel. Her friendship with St. John was established, for
although she fluctuated between irritation and interest in a way that
did credit to the candour of her disposition, she liked his company on
the whole. He took her outside this little world of love and emotion.
He had a grasp of facts. Supposing, for instance, that England made a
sudden move towards some unknown port on the coast of Morocco, St.
John knew what was at the back of it, and to hear him engaged with her
husband in argument about finance and the balance of power, gave her
an odd sense of stability. She respected their arguments without always
listening to them, much as she respected a solid brick wall, or one
of those immense municipal buildings which, although they compose the
greater part of our cities, have been built day after day and year after
year by unknown hands. She liked to sit and listen, and even felt a
little elated when the engaged couple, after showing their profound lack
of interest, slipped from the room, and were seen pulling flowers to
pieces in the garden.
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