She was not the first wife, by a long way, into whose quiet breast Lady Dunstable had dropped these seeds of discord.

She knew it well by report; but it was hateful, both to wifely feeling and natural vanity, that _she_ should now be the victim of the moment, and should know no more than her predecessors how to defend herself.

"Why can't I be cool and cutting--pay her back when she is rude, and contradict her when she's absurd?
She _is_ absurd often.

But I think of the right things to say just five minutes too late.

I have no nerve--that's the point!--only _l'esprit d'escalier_ to perfection.