Can't you give them to me ?' 'No; I shall give nothing more to you.

Good-bye....
'Remember, there are to be no more exceptions,' said Edith.
'I promise.' She sat quietly alone for half-an-hour, waiting for Bruce.
She now felt sorry for Bruce, utterly and completely indifferent about 'the Townsend case', as she already humorously called it to herself.
But, she thought, she _must_ be strong! She was not prepared to lose her dignity, nor to allow the children to be educated by a woman whose faith at least with them and in their home was unreliable; their surroundings must be crystal-clear.

It would make a certain difference to them, she thought.

How could it not?
There were so many little ways in which she might spoil them or tease them, scamp things, or rush them, or be nicer to one of them, or less nice, if she had any sort of concealed relation with their father.

And as she had been treated absolutely as a confidante by Edith, the girl had certainly shown herself treacherous, and rather too clearly capable of dissimulation.
Edith thought this must have a bad effect on the children.
Edith was essentially a very feminine woman though she had a mental attitude rightly held to be more characteristic of men.