My sadness at not going to college remained like lint in my pocket.
The number of times I had surreptitiously watched Herbert being flirtatious mounted. But that"s all I had ever seen, trifles. Powerful fripperies, if there were such things, effects as clear as the early summer sky.
My father had not raised me to be a fool. I knew in this stratified world, a flirtatious fiancé would more than likely become an adulterous husband. They thought it was their right, part of their birthright, as if their possession of wealth lifted them above the laws of morality. My opinions of such men came from my father, not my mother. Was it for the best? To be a bastion of decency often brought only loneliness and heartbreak in a world where the definition of decency changed as often as women changed the
