She beat him at his own honourable game and the thoroughness of her
serenity disconcerted Anthony a bit. It was he who stammered when it
came to talking. The suppressed fierceness of his character carried him
on after the first word or two masterfully enough. But it was as if they
both had taken a bite of the same bitter fruit. He was thinking with
mournful regret not unmixed with surprise: "That fellow Fyne has been
telling me the truth. She does not care for me a bit." It humiliated
him and also increased his compassion for the girl who in this darkness
of life, buffeted and despairing, had fallen into the grip of his
stronger will, abandoning herself to his arms as on a night of shipwreck.
Flora on her side with partial insight (for women are never blind with
the complete masculine blindness) looked on him with some pity; and she
felt pity for herself too. It was a rejection, a casting out; nothing
new to her. But she who supposed all her sensibility dead by this time,
discovered in herself a resentment of this ultimate betrayal. She had no
resignation for this one. With a sort of mental sullenness she said to
herself: "Well, I am here. I am here without any nonsense. It is not my
fault that I am a mere worthless object of pity."
And these things which she could tell herself with a clear conscience
served her better than the passionate obstinacy of purpose could serve
Roderick Anthony. She was much more sure of herself than he was. Such
are the advantages of mere rectitude over the most exalted generosity.
And so they went out to get married, the people of the house where she
lodged having no suspicion of anything of the sort. They were only
excited at a "gentleman friend" (a very fine man too) calling on Miss
Smith for the first time since she had come to live in the house. When
she returned, for she did come back alone, there were allusions made to
that outing. She had to take her meals with these rather vulgar people.
The woman of the house, a scraggy, genteel person, tried even to provoke
confidences. Flora's white face with the deep blue eyes did not strike
their hearts as it did the heart of Captain Anthony, as the very face of
the suffering world. Her pained reserve had no power to awe them into
decency.
Well, she returned alone--as in fact might have been expected. After
leaving the Registry Office Flora de Barral and Roderick Anthony had gone
for a walk in a park. It must have been an East-End park but I am not
sure. Anyway that's what they did. It was a sunny day. He said to her:
"Everything I have in the world belongs to you. I have seen to that
without troubling my brother-in-law. They have no call to interfere."