“I must be going crazy. Another marriage this month! Another marriage into that Van Hoosen family! I will not hear of such a thing! I will not listen to you! It is outrageous!”
“I feel that Yanna is necessary to my best interests. She keeps me right. I am ashamed to say that I fell under the Z——’s spell again last Thursday. I lost money, too, after the opera, at cards; I lost far more than money—I lost my veracity, my honor, and my self-respect. Yanna only can keep me out of temptation.”
“It seems even she fails.”
“You ought to be glad, mother, that Yanna is willing to marry me, and help me to do what is right.”
“I am profoundly sorry and angry. Pray, where are you going to live? That woman shall not enter any house of which I am the mistress. I will have nothing to do with her—nor with you either.”
At this point Harry heard his father going through the hall. He called him into the room and re-stated his intentions.
“Well, Harry,” answered Mr. Filmer, “if you choose to make your mother ill and miserable, I cannot prevent you doing so. But it does occur to me that we have had quite a surfeit of the Van Hoosens lately.”
“You ought not to speak of Antony in that way, sir. You know the circumstances.”
“I think perhaps I do not know them. I think perhaps that your mother was right, and too much was made of the circumstances. However, I must say that I do not feel equal to another wedding. My work has been thrown back and out of order, and I did hope and look for a little peace and comfort now.”
His air was worried and yet decisive, and as he sat 187 down by Mrs. Filmer and began to talk of their removal to Woodsome, Harry perceived that his affairs had been dismissed. He rose, went to his room, dressed for the evening, and then went to call upon Miss Alida. Her friend Selina Zabriski had just returned, but she was weary and invisible, and so Harry had Miss Alida’s company without interruption. She wondered at his visit, but instantly connected it with Adriana. “Have you written to her?” she asked, with a knowing smile.