At any rate they had a grandfather in common; at any rate there was a kind of loyalty between them sometimes found between relations who have no other cause to like each other, as these two had.
"Well, what's the date of the wedding ?" said Henry, the malicious mood now predominating.
"I think some time in March," she replied.
"And afterwards ?" he asked.
"We take a house, I suppose, somewhere in Chelsea." "It's very interesting," he observed, stealing another look at her.
She lay back in her arm-chair, her feet high upon the side of the grate, and in front of her, presumably to screen her eyes, she held a newspaper from which she picked up a sentence or two now and again.

Observing this, Henry remarked: "Perhaps marriage will make you more human." At this she lowered the newspaper an inch or two, but said nothing.
Indeed, she sat quite silent for over a minute.
"When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they ?" she said suddenly.
"I don't think I ever do consider things like the stars," Henry replied.
"I'm not sure that that's not the explanation, though," he added, now observing her steadily.
"I doubt whether there is an explanation," she replied rather hurriedly, not clearly understanding what he meant.
"What?
No explanation of anything ?" he inquired, with a smile.
"Oh, things happen.

That's about all," she let drop in her casual, decided way.
"That certainly seems to explain some of your actions," Henry thought to himself.
"One thing's about as good as another, and one's got to do something," he said aloud, expressing what he supposed to be her attitude, much in her accent.

Perhaps she detected the imitation, for looking gently at him, she said, with ironical composure: "Well, if you believe that your life must be simple, Henry." "But I don't believe it," he said shortly.
"No more do I," she replied.
"What about the stars ?" he asked a moment later.

"I understand that you rule your life by the stars ?" She let this pass, either because she did not attend to it, or because the tone was not to her liking.
Once more she paused, and then she inquired: "But do you always understand why you do everything?
Ought one to understand?
People like my mother understand," she reflected.