 fact that she had once been used to wearing
them, with other amenities such as he imputed to the intercourse of jealous
women. He had the triumphant certainty that he could aggravate the jealousy and
yet smite it with a more absolute dumbness. His object was to engage all his
wife's egoism on the same side as his own, and in his employment of Lush he did
not intend an insult to her: she ought to understand that he was the only
possible envoy. Grandcourt's view of things was considerably fenced in by his
general sense, that what suited him, others must put up with. There is no
escaping the fact that want of sympathy condemns us to a corresponding
stupidity. Mephistopheles thrown upon real life, and obliged to manage his own
plots, would inevitably make blunders.
    One morning he went to Gwendolen in the boudoir beyond the back
drawing-room, hat and gloves in hand, and said with his best-tempered, most
persuasive drawl, standing before her and looking down on her as she sat with a
book on her lap -
    »A - Gwendolen, there's some business about property to be explained. I have
told Lush to come and explain it to you. He knows all about these things. I am
going out. He can come up now. He's the only person who can explain. I suppose
you'll not mind.«
    »You know that I do mind,« said Gwendolen, angrily, starting up. »I shall
not see him.« She showed the intention to dart away to the door. Grandcourt was
before her, with his back towards it. He was prepared for her anger, and showed
none in return, saying, with the same sort of remonstrant tone that he might
have used about an objection to dining out -
    »It's no use making a fuss. There are plenty of brutes in the world that one
has to talk to. People with any savoir vivre don't make a fuss about such
things. Some business must be done. You don't expect agreeable people to do it.
If I employ Lush, the proper thing for you is to take it as a matter of course.
Not to make a fuss about it. Not to toss your head and bite your lips about
people of that sort.«
    The drawling and the pauses with which this speech was uttered gave time for
crowding reflections in Gwendolen, quelling her resistance. What was there to be
told her about property? This word had certain dominant associations for her,
first with her mother,
