“Is your daughter’s indisposition likely to delay the ceremony appointed to take place at no very distant date?” observed the earl.
“You ask me a question I shall find it difficult to answer, monsieur,” returned the lady.
“And why so, I pray?”
“I am not certain that the marriage will ever take place at all. We can none of us tell what may happen. It is an old saying that ‘there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip.’”
“But I understood,” stammered out his lordship, “at least such was my impression, that all the preliminaries were arranged, and that a special time had been appointed.”
“So it had, but what of that?”
“I presume the contracting parties have no desire to withdraw from the covenant?”
“I don’t know about that. There is a new aspect in affairs, and one of the contracting parties has imprudently chosen to withdraw.”
“Indeed, you surprise me. Which may it be? Excuse my plain questioning. I am deeply interested in all that concerns your dear amiable daughter.”
“You are very kind, I am sure,” observed madame, with something like sarcasm in her tone.