Mrs.Lascelles appeared to be surveying me with equal resentment and defiance.

I, on the other hand, having shot my bolt, did my best to look conciliatory.
"Why should I refuse him ?" she asked at length, with less emotion and more dignity than her bearing had led me to expect.

"You seem so sure about it, you know!" "He is such a boy--such an utter child--as I said just now." I was conscious of the weakness of saying it again, and it alone, but my strongest arguments were too strong for direct statement.
This one, however, was not unfruitful in the end.
"And I," said Mrs.Lascelles, "how old do you think I am?
Thirty-five ?" "Of course not," I replied, with obvious gallantry.

"But I doubt if Bob is even twenty." "Well, then, you won't believe me, but I was married before I was his age, and I am just six-and-twenty now." It was a surprise to me.

I did not doubt it for a moment; one never did doubt Mrs.Lascelles.It was indeed easy enough to believe (so much I told her) if one looked upon the woman as she was, and only difficult in the prejudicial light of her matrimonial record.