“In a word, no. For I am going to Aunt Angelica’s.”
“Upon my honour, it is to your Aunt Angelica’s I desire to go most of all!”
“Now I understand. You have found out that Cornelia Moran is going there. Are you still harping on that string? And Cornelia never said one word to me. I do not approve of such deceit. In my love affairs I have always been open as the day.”
“I assure you that I did NOT know Miss Moran was going there. I had not a thought of Madame Jacobus until we met. To tell the very truth, I came into town to look for you.”
“For me? And why, pray?”
“I want to see Miss Moran. If I cannot see her, then I want to hear about her. I thought you, of all people, could tell me the most and the best. I assured myself that you had infinite good temper. Now, pray do not disappoint me.”
“Listen! We meet this afternoon at my aunt’s, to discuss the dresses and ceremonies proper for a very fine wedding.”
“For your own wedding, in fact—Is not that so?”
“Well, then?”
“Well, then, who knows more on that subject than Joris Hyde? Was I not, last year, at Lady Betty Somer’s splendid nuptials; and at Fanny Paget’s, and the Countess of Carlisle’s? Indeed, I maintain that in such a discussion I am an absolute necessity. And I wish to know Madame Jacobus. I have long wished to know her. Upon my honour, I think her to be one of the most interesting women in New York!”