waste of money upon tickets and rather a waste of time upon travel to
let the girl go to India if Leonora thought that there was any chance of
her marrying me.

And Leonora, I assure you, was the absolutely perfect British matron.
She said that she quite favoured my suit; that she could not desire for
the girl a better husband; but that she considered that the girl ought
to see a little more of life before taking such an important step. Yes,
Leonora used the words "taking such an important step". She was perfect.
Actually, I think she would have liked the girl to marry me enough but
my programme included the buying of the Kershaw's house about a mile
away upon the Fordingbridge road, and settling down there with the girl.
That didn't at all suit Leonora. She didn't want to have the girl within
a mile and a half of Edward for the rest of their lives. Still, I think
she might have managed to let me know, in some periphrasis or other,
that I might have the girl if I would take her to Philadelphia or
Timbuctoo. I loved Nancy very much--and Leonora knew it. However, I left
it at that. I left it with the understanding that Nancy was going
away to India on probation. It seemed to me a perfectly reasonable
arrangement and I am a reasonable sort of man. I simply said that I
should follow Nancy out to India after six months' time or so. Or,
perhaps, after a year. Well, you see, I did follow Nancy out to India
after a year.... I must confess to having felt a little angry with
Leonora for not having warned me earlier that the girl would be going.
I took it as one of the queer, not very straight methods that Roman
Catholics seem to adopt in dealing with matters of this world. I took
it that Leonora had been afraid I should propose to the girl or, at any
rate, have made considerably greater advances to her than I did, if I
had known earlier that she was going away so soon. Perhaps Leonora
was right; perhaps Roman Catholics, with their queer, shifty ways, are
always right. They are dealing with the queer, shifty thing that is
human nature. For it is quite possible that, if I had known Nancy was
going away so soon, I should have tried making love to her. And that
would have produced another complication. It may have been just as well.

It is queer the fantastic things that quite good people will do in order
to keep up their appearance of calm pococurantism. For Edward Ashburnham
and his wife called me half the world over in order to si