“And—and if it is to be, how soon do you suppose it likely?” asked Miss Perfect, fixing her eyes anxiously on him.
“Well, you know, I know no more than the man in the moon; but if they really mean it, I don’t see what’s to delay it,” answered Trevor.
“Because”—hesitated Aunt Dinah, “I have reason to know that if that unfortunate young man—not that I have any reason to care more than anyone else, should marry before the lapse of five years, he will be utterly ruined, and undone by so doing.”
Vane Trevor stood expecting an astounding revelation, but Aunt Dinah proceeded—
“And therefore as you are his friend—of course it’s nothing to me—I thought you might as well hear it, and if you chose to take that trouble, let him know,” said Miss Perfect.
He looked a little hard at Miss Perfect, and she as steadily on him.
“I will, certainly—that is, if you think I ought. But I hope it won’t get me into a scrape with the people there.”
“I do think you ought,” said Miss Perfect.
“I—I suppose he’ll understand the reason?” suggested Vane Trevor, half interrogatively.
“If you say—I think, if you say—that I said I had reason to know”—and Aunt Dinah paused.