But Lyons saw no reason to
differ from her verdict. "It means necessarily great mortification for
them and a curtailment of their present mode of life," he said. "I am
sorry for them."
"Sorry? Of course, James, it is distressing to hear that misfortune has
befallen any person of one's acquaintance, and so far as Gregory
Williams himself is concerned I have no wish to see him punished simply
because he has been worldly and vainglorious. You thought him able in a
business way, and liked to meet him. But as for her, Flossy, his wife,"
Selma continued, with a gasp, "it would be sheer hypocrisy for me to
assert that I am sorry for her. I should deem myself unworthy of being
considered an earnest-minded American woman if I did not maintain that
this disgrace which has befallen them is the logical and legitimate
consequence of their godless lives--especially of her frivolity and
presumptuous indifference to spiritual influences. That woman, James, is
utterly hostile to the things of the spirit. You have no conception--I
have never told you, because he was your friend, and I was willing to
let bygones be bygones on the surface on your account--you have no
conception of the cross her behavior became to me in New York.
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