'Then why are there impossibilities?'
'Oh, some day I'll tell you!' said Dora, with a quick sigh. 'Perhaps after Tishy is married. And meanwhile, are you not going to remain in Paris, at any rate? Isn't your work here? You are not here for me only. You can come to the house often. That's what I mean by our being friends.'
Her companion sat looking at her with a gloomy stare, as if he were trying to make up the deficiencies in her logic.
'After Tishy is married? I don't see what that has to do with it. Tishy is little more than a baby; she may not be married for ten years.'
'That is very true.'
And you dispose of the interval by a simple "meanwhile"? My dear Dora, your talk is strange,' Raymond continued, with his voice passionately lowered. 'And I may come to the house—often? How often do you mean—in ten years? Five times—or even twenty?' He saw that her eyes were filling with tears, but he went on: 'It has been coming over me little by little (I notice things very much if I have a reason), and now I think I understand your mother's system.'
'Don't say anything against my mother,' the girl broke in, beseechingly.
'I shall not say anything unjust. That is if I am unjust you must tell me. This is my idea, and your speaking of Tishy's marriage confirms it. To begin with she has had immense plans for you all; she wanted each of you to be a princess or a duchess—I mean a good one. But she has had to give you up.'
'No one has asked for me,' said Dora, with unexpected honesty.
