“Well, he isn’t,” Marian Whiting blazed. “And if you ask me, he isn’t any good.”
She checked herself abruptly.
Mason said, “Oh, surely, it can’t be that bad. He has rather a nice face.”
“Ever since he’s known Sis,” Marian went on passionately, “he’s been a bad influence in her life. I was certainly hoping she wouldn’t marry him.”
“What’s he do?” Mason asked.
“I don’t know. That’s the mysterious part of it. He has plenty of money and a prejudiced, warped, cynical outlook on life. I think he’s in some sort of a racket. I don’t trust him.”
“I take it your sister won’t be living with you when she gets back.”
“Yes, she’s going to — for at least a couple of months. They can’t publicly announce the marriage yet. It’s something about an interlocutory decree that isn’t final, or something. Sis has been rather mysterious about it all. He’s made such a change in her. My heavens! I’d have sworn she’d never get married again. She liked men and she liked to have a good time, but we, both of us, decided it was a lot better these days for a girl to have her independence and keep house by herself than to have some man ordering her around, making her work, and spending her money. Sis had one experience with marriage, and it was enough... Now you promise me you won’t say anything to the newspapers.”
“About your sister’s marriage?”
“Yes. I shouldn’t have told you that.”