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.”