“How can it matter?”
“It matters a good deal. Have you told her any scandal about me?”
“Yes, I have.”
Everard looked at her with surprise.
“I spoke to Miss Nunn about you,” she continued, “before I thought of your coming here. Frankly, I used you as an illustration of the evils I abominate.”
“You are a courageous and plain-spoken woman, cousin Mary,” said Everard, laughing a little. “Couldn’t you have found some other example?”
There was no reply.
“So,” he proceeded, “Miss Nunn regards me as a proved scoundrel?”
“I never told her the story. I made known the general grounds of my dissatisfaction with you, that was all.”
“Come, that’s something. I’m glad you didn’t amuse her with that unedifying bit of fiction.”