But I could not remain easy. Taylor is a good fellow, and it would be a
shame to allow him to marry a woman with whom he could never be happy.
He would feel any such disappointment so keenly, so much more keenly
than most men. A lack of principle or even of sensibility on her part,
would make him miserable. Anticipating heaven, it would not take a hell
to make him wretched, a purgatory would do it. Was I right, then, in
letting him proceed in his intentions regarding Mrs. Walworth, when she
possibly was the woman who----I paused and tried to call up her
countenance before me. It was a sweet one and possibly a true one. I
might have trusted her for myself, but I do not look for perfection and
Taylor does, and will certainly go to the bad if he is deceived in his
expectations. But in a week! It is too late for interference--only it is
never too late till the knot is tied. As I thought of this, I decided
impulsively, and perhaps you may say unwisely, to give him a hint of his
danger, and I did it in this wise.
"Taylor," said I, when I had him safely in my own rooms, "I am going to
tell you a bit of personal history, curious enough I think to interest
you even upon the eve of your marriage. I do not know when I shall see
you again, and I should like you to know how a lawyer and a man of the
world can sometimes be taken in."
He nodded, accepting the situation good-humoredly, though I saw by the
abstraction with which he gazed into the fire, that I should have to be
very interesting to lure him from the thoughts that engrossed him. As I
meant to be very interesting, this did not greatly concern me.