Now that he had begun to be frank and lucid, Bernard found a charm in
it, and the impulse under which he had spoken urged him almost violently
forward.
"The mother and daughter have agreed together to bag you, and Angela, I
am sure, has made a vow to be as nice to you after marriage as possible.
Mrs. Vivian has insisted upon the importance of that; Mrs. Vivian is a
great moralist."
Gordon kept gazing at his friend; he seemed positively fascinated.
"Yes, I have noticed that in Mrs. Vivian," he said.
"Ah, she 's a very nice woman!"
"It 's not true, then," said Gordon, "that you tried to make love to
Angela?"
Bernard hesitated a single instant.
"No, it is n't true. I calumniated myself, to save her reputation. You
insisted on my giving you a reason for my not liking her--I gave you
that one."
"And your real reason--"
"My real reason is that I believe she would do you what I can't help
regarding as an injury."
"Of course!" and Gordon, dropping his interested eyes, stared for some
moments at the carpet. "But it is n't true, then, that you discovered
her to be a coquette?"
"Ah, that 's another matter."
"You did discover it all the same?"
"Since you want the whole truth--I did!"
"How did you discover it?" Gordon asked, clinging to his right of
interrogation.
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