Ursula did not reply “For an old woman to marry a young man is worse.” She only thought it. We can all be magnanimous in victory. But Ursula could even have been so, if required, in defeat. Her faults were never little ones.
To her confidential spinster friends Miss Mopius remarked, “She is very plain. I can’t imagine what he sees in her. So brown! But, then, of course, he is past the heyday of youth, and a little usé. Well, some women like to get their lovers second-hand.”
“I shouldn’t,” remarked one mittened crony.
“No, indeed,” replied Miss Mopius.
CHAPTER XV
DONNA É MOBILE
On the Saturday following the Van Trossarts’ garden-party—two days, therefore, previously to the events just narrated—Gerard van Helmont called in the early morning at the house of his betrothed. He could hardly realize, as he impatiently awaited her, that not twenty-four hours had elapsed since this new brightness had come into his life. Already he felt accustomed to the new rôle of a very wealthy man with a very charming wife. How happy his mother would be after the first shock of the unexpected! They must find another match for Otto. Sprightly, sportive Helena would never have married Otto, anyway. He glanced at the clock. Half-past ten. As long as clocks stood in front of mirrors Gerard never saw only the time.
The door opened; a servant entered slowly.