'You're the only person who ever thought so.'
Mrs Tower, not without magnanimity, acknowledged that she had been mistaken in Gilbert.
She grew quite attached to him.
But notwithstanding appearances she never faltered in her opinion that the marriage could not last.
I was obliged to laugh at her.
'Why, I've never seen such a devoted couple,' I said.
'Gilbert is twenty-seven now.
It's just the time for a pretty girl to come along.
Did you notice the other evening at Jane's that pretty little niece of Sir Reginald's?
I thought Jane was looking at them both with a good deal of attention, and I wondered to myself.'
'I don't believe Jane fears the rivalry of any girl under the sun.'
'Wait and see,' said Mrs Tower.
'You gave it six months.'
'Well, now I give it three years.'
When anyone is very positive in an opinion it is only human nature to wish him proved wrong.
Mrs Tower was really too cocksure.
But such a satisfaction was not mine, for the end that she had always and confidently predicted to the ill-assorted match did in point of fact come.
Still, the fates seldom give us what we want in the way we want it, and though Mrs Tower could flatter herself that she had been right, I think after all she would sooner have been wrong.
For things did not happen at all in the way she expected.
One day I received an urgent message from her and fortunately went to see her at once.
When I was shown into the room Mrs Tower rose from her chair and came towards me with the stealthy swiftness of a leopard stalking his prey.
I saw that she was excited.
'Jane and Gilbert have separated,' she said.
'Not really?
Well, you were right after all.'
Mrs Tower looked at me with an expression I could not understand.
'Poor Jane,' I muttered.
'Poor Jane!' she repeated, but in tones of such derision that I was dumbfounded.
She found some difficulty in telling me exactly what had occurred.
Gilbert had left her a moment before she leaped to the telephone to summon me.
When he entered the room, pale and distraught, she saw at once that something terrible had happened.
She knew what he was going to say before he said it.
'Marion, Jane has left me.'
She gave him a little smile and took his hand.
'I knew you'd behave like a gentleman.
It would have been dreadful for her for people to think that you had left her.'
'I've come to you because I knew I could count on your sympathy.'
'Oh, I don't blame you, Gilbert,' said Mrs Tower, very kindly.
'It was bound to happen.'
He sighed.
'I suppose so.
I couldn't hope to keep her always.
She was too wonderful and I'm a perfectly commonplace fellow.'
Mrs Tower patted his hand.
He was really behaving beautifully.
'And what is going to happen now?'
'Well, she's going to divorce me.'
'Jane always said she'd put no obstacle in your way if ever you wanted to marry a girl.'
'You don't think it's likely I should ever be willing to marry anyone else after being Jane's husband,' he answered.
Mrs Tower was puzzled.