"Well, to go back to what I started to say, Aline is very bitter about matrimony as viewed from my point of view. I am sorry to say I attribute her attitude to your excellent counselling."
"You flatter me. I was under the impression she took her lessons of Tarnowsy."
"Granted. But Tarnowsy was unfit. Why tar all of them with the same stick? There are good noblemen, you'll admit."
"But they don't need rehabilitation."
"Aline, I fear, will never risk another experiment. It's rather calamitous, isn't it? When one stops to consider her youth, beauty and all the happiness there may be—"
"I beg your pardon, Mrs. Titus, but I think your fears are groundless."
"What do you mean?"
"The Countess will marry again. I am not betraying a secret, because she has intimated as much to my secretary as well as to me. I take it that as soon as this unhappy affair is settled, she will be free to reveal the true state of her feelings toward—" I stopped, somewhat dismayed by my garrulous turn.
"Toward whom?" she fairly snapped.
"I don't know," I replied truthfully—and, I fear, lugubriously.