s the fact of Nick's
return to Paris that was being described in those preposterous terms!
She sank down on the bench beside the dripping umbrella-stand and stared
vacantly before her. It had fallen at last--this blow in which she now
saw that she had never really believed! And yet she had imagined she was
prepared for it, had expected it, was already planning her future life
in view of it--an effaced impersonal life in the service of somebody
else's children--when, in reality, under that thin surface of abnegation
and acceptance, all the old hopes had been smouldering red-hot in their
ashes! What was the use of any self-discipline, any philosophy, any
experience, if the lawless self underneath could in an instant consume
them like tinder?

She tried to collect herself--to understand what had happened. Nick was
coming to Paris--coming not to see her but to consult his lawyer! It
meant, of course, that he had definitely resolved to claim his freedom;
and that, if he had made up his mind to this final step, after more
than six months of inaction and seeming indifference, it could be
only because something unforeseen and decisive had happened to him.
Feverishly, she put together again the stray scraps of gossip and the
newspaper paragraphs that had reached her in the last months. It
was evident that Miss Hicks's projected marriage with the Prince of
Teutoburg-Waldhain had been broken off at the last moment; and broken
off because she intended to marry Nick. The announcement of his arrival
in Paris and the publication of Mr. and Mrs. Hicks's formal denial of
their daughter's betrothal coincided too closely to admit of any other
inference. Susy tried to grasp the reality of these assembled facts, to
picture to herself their actual tangible results. She thought of Coral
Hicks bearing the name of Mrs. Nick Lansing--her name, Susy's own!--and
entering drawing-rooms with Nick in her wake, gaily welcomed by the very
people who, a few months before, had welcomed Susy with the same warmth.
In spite of Nick's growing dislike of society, and Coral's attitude of
intellectual superiority, their wealth would fatally draw them back into
the world to which Nick was attached by all his habits and associations.
And no doubt it would amuse him to re-enter that world as a dispenser of
hospitality, to play the part of host where he had so long been a guest;
just as Susy had once fancied it would amuse her to re-enter it as Lady
Altringham....