has seen him for really the last time, and he has
refused to take back the little things he has given one, and promised
never to communicate with one again, or to write one any foolish
letters, he should be perfectly broken-hearted, and telegraph to one all
day long, and send one little notes every half-hour by private hansom,
and dine quite alone at the club, so that every one should know how
unhappy he was. And after a whole dreadful week, during which one has
gone about everywhere with one's husband, just to show how absolutely
lonely one was, he may be given a third last parting, in the evening,
and then, if his conduct has been quite irreproachable, and one has
behaved really badly to him, he should be allowed to admit that he has
been entirely in the wrong, and when he has admitted that, it becomes a
woman's duty to forgive, and one can do it all over again from the
beginning, with variations.
LADY HUNSTANTON: How clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single
word you say.
LADY STUTFIELD: Thank you, thank you. It has been quite, quite
entrancing. I must try and remember it all. There are such a number of
details that are so very, very important.
LADY CAROLINE: But you have not told us yet what the reward of the Ideal
Man is to be.
MRS ALLONBY: His reward? Oh, infinite expectation. That is quite enough
for him.
LADY STUTFIELD: But men are so terribly, terribly, e
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