Surely you perceive some way of averting the disaster in it!"
"I'm sure I don't know what you refer to." Mrs. Sand's tone was prudish
and offended. "She hasn't said a word to me--she's a great one for
keeping things to herself--but if Mr. Lindsay don't mean marriage with
her----"
"Why, of course!" Arnold, startled, turned furiously red, but Mrs. Sand
in her indignation did not reflect the tint. "Of course! Is not that,"
he went on after an instant's pause, "precisely what is to be
lamented--and prevented?"
Mrs. Sand looked at her visitor with dry suspicion. "I suppose you are a
friend of his," she said.
"I have known him for years. Pray don't misunderstand me. There is
nothing against him--nothing whatever."
"Oh, I don't suppose there is, except that he is not on the Lord's side.
But I don't expect any of his friends are anxious for him to marry an
officer in the Salvation Army. Society people ain't fond of the Army,
and never will be."
"His people--he has only distant relatives living--are all at home,"
Stephen said, vaguely. The situation had become slightly confused.
"Then you speak for them, I suppose."
"Indeed not, I am in no communication with them whatever.
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