"I didn't care much about the sort of society you introduced me to when we first married. I didn't like any of them much."
"What's the matter with them?" he asked. He knew she had always felt morbidly and bitterly out of it because she mistakenly believed that everybody was interested in the fact that her grandfather had made a fortune in treacle, and that her husband was Lord Wantage's nephew. As a matter of fact, no one who came to the house cared in the slightest degree about either of these circumstances (even if they knew them) but merely wished candidly to enjoy themselves in a large, jolly, hospitable house, owned by a very attractive man with a large number of amusing friends and, apparently, a harmless and good-natured little wife. Mary detested and soon put a stop to intimate or Bohemian friends who sat up all night smoking, talking art or literature, or being musical; and she managed rapidly to reduce their circle to a much smaller one at a much greater distance. She had not a single intimate friend. With women she only exchanged cards. "What's wrong with them all?" Nigel repeated, for he was beginning to lose patience.
"Oh! their manners are all right. If you really want to know what I think of the whole set--I mean that sort of half-clever, half-smart set you were in--the barristers and writers, artists, sporting and gambling men, and women mad on music and the theatre--well, it is that the men are silly and frivolous, and the women horrid and--and _fast_! Some are cold and just as hard as nails, others are positively _wicked_! I admit most of the men have nice manners and the women are not stupid. They all dress well."
"Well, after all, if you don't like them, why should you see them?" he said, good-naturedly enough. He did not feel inclined to defend all his acquaintances. "But may I ask, do you consider that this set, as you call it, lead a _useless_ life?"
"I see what you mean quite well," she said, walking up and down the room. "You think _I_ lead a useless life--that I'm not accomplished or literary or even domestic, or social. You think I lead an empty life with all my money."
"Well, why shouldn't you, if you like it? But I wish you enjoyed it yourself more, that's the point."