"
"Van, you are right. I am mortified with myself beyond measure,
and I am bitterly ashamed that my aunt, her own mother, should
have so grossly misjudged her. Sibley, no doubt, IS the occasion
of her trouble in part, for she seems fairly to writhe under the
false position in which he has placed her by leading every one to
associate her name with his; but I now believe that she loathes
and detests him more than you or I can. Certainly no woman could
speak of a man in harsher or more scathing terms than she spoke
of him to-night. Well, to sum up the whole miserable trough, by
taking her mother's view for granted, I made such a mess of it that
I doubt if she ever speaks civilly to either of us again."
"Why! was my name mentioned?" asked Van Berg, quickly.
"Yes, confound it all! When things are going wrong there is a
miserable fatality about them, and the worst always happens. She
asked me point-blank if you shared my estimate of her, and I suppose
got the impression you did."
"Well really, Stanton," said Van Berg, with some irritation, "I
think you must have been unfortunate in your language."
"Worse than unfortunate. The whole blunder is unpardonable.
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