Next day Mrs. Courtly found an opportunity of saying to Miss Ballinger, in her soft, deprecatory way,
"I am afraid you may form a false impression of Mrs. Van Winkle. She is really a very kind woman, as well as a clever one, and she is a very good wife, too, only you see her failing. She likes to astonish people. That makes her say things occasionally which—which she had better not."
Grace smiled. "I suppose she has been spoiled—she gives one that idea. Did she marry for money?"
"Why, no! What made you think that?"
"She looked so annoyed when Mr. Ferrars talked of 'links of gold.' I am sure he meant something disagreeable by it. He looked it."
"Mr. Van Winkle is by no means rich, but she married him because she was in love; and they are really very happy. He is of a very good old Knickerbocker family. She is very proud of that, as you see. She has always a train of admirers; it means nothing, and Mr. Van Winkle does not object. That is to say, he doesn't generally. It is said he did so once, in the case of a man who was very rich, when some one ill-naturedly started the idea that this person helped the establishment along. It got to Mr. Van Winkle's ears, and he gave the man his congé there and then. It is the only time he ever asserted his authority, and I am not sure that his wife did not like him all the better for it. If Quintin Ferrars meant anything by his 'golden links,' it was that; but I really think it was a chance shot, and Mrs. Van Winkle—"
"What about her?" said Sir Mordaunt. He had come up, unperceived by Mrs. Courtly; and she stopped short on seeing him. "I think that woman is the greatest sport I've met for a week of Sundays! How she does blow her own trumpet! I never can be dull in New York as long as she is there. What sort of fellow is the male Winkle, Mrs. Courtly?"
"A very nice man, but he doesn't amount to much. He is a Van. You mustn't call him Winkle—tout court."
"A descendant of the famous Rip, I suppose. We have all had rips for ancestors, at some time or other, no doubt!" and the young man laughed.
"For shame! to decry your pedigree in that way! We are very proud of our descent—when we have any; and if we know who our great-grandfather was, we always speak of him as having fought in the War of Independence."