"Planning and doing are two very different things," Roslyn pointed out, "and while you wait for his grand schemes to bear fruit, your own...blossoms are...are dying on the bush."

It was not a perfect metaphor. It was barely even a coherent metaphor.

"That is to say," Roslyn clarified, "that every day you spend in his company without certain assurances—such as the support of our father—that status dwindles."

Alfred Darrow was nothing like Justin Ross. He was not in a position to support a wife, did not have a reputable (even boring!) history to recommend him. He was, at best, a risky gamble, and Roslyn Ross had never been one to roll the dice.