I am going to ask a very foolish——I mean an idle——I should say, an unmeaning question.
MARY.
Never mind that; what is it?
CHARVILLE.
Has Freemantle really a sister?
MARY.
Is it possible that you have forgot the young lady whom you used to think poor Mordant resembled?
CHARVILLE.
Very true; it went out of my head strangely.
MARY.
Strangely indeed! Could you think he would talk of a sister, if he had none?
CHARVILLE.
O no, no, no! I have not an atom of suspicion about me; but I thought it might be a sister-in-law, or a brother's wife, or——there is no saying how many intricate relationships people have, now-a-days.
MARY.
He could have no sister-in-law; for poor Mordant, though distant, is his nearest male relation.
