'Then she has been telling other people.ABSOLUTELY the worst thing she could do!' Mrs.Innes exclaimed privately, sitting unmoved, her face a little too expectant.
'You won't be prepared for it--you may be shocked and hurt by it.
Indeed, I think there is no need to repeat it to you.But I must put you on your guard.Men are coarser, you know, than women; they are apt to put their own interpretation--'
'What is it?'
There was a physical gasp, a sharpness in her voice that brought Innes's eyes from the floor to her face.
'I am sorry,' he said, 'but--don't overestimate it, don't let it worry you.It was simply a very impertinent--a very disagreeable reference to you and Mr.Holmcroft, I think, in connection with the Dovedell's picnic.It was a particularly silly thing as well, and Iam sure no one would attach any importance to it, but it was said openly at the Club, and--'
'Who said it?' Mrs.Innes demanded.
A flood of colour rushed over her face.Horace marked that she blushed.
'I don't know whether I ought to tell you, Violet.It certainly was not meant for your ears.'
'If I'm not to know who said it, I don't see why I should pay any attention to it.Mere idle rumour--'
Innes bit his lip.
'Captain Gordon said it,' he replied.
'Bobby Gordon! DO tell me what he said! I'm dying to know.Was he very disagreeable? I DID give his dance away on Thursday night.'
Innes looked at her with the curious distrust which she often inspired in him.He had a feeling that he would like to put her out of the room into a place by herself, and keep her there.
'I won't repeat what he said.' Colonel Innes took up the 'Saturday Review'.
'Oh, do, Horace! I particularly want to know.'
Innes said nothing.
'Horace! Was it--was it anything about Mr.Holmcroft being my Secretariat baa-lamb?'
'If you adorn your guess with a little profanity,' said Innes, acidly, 'you won't be far wrong.'
Mrs.Violet burst into a peal of laughter.
'Why, you old goose!' she articulated, behind her handkerchief; 'he said that to ME.'
Innes laid down the 'Saturday Review'.
'To you!' he repeated; 'Gordon said it to you!'
'Rather!' Mrs.Violet was still mirthful.'I'm not sure that he didn't call poor little Homie something worse than that.It's the purest jealousy on his part--nothing to make a fuss about.'
The fourth skin which enables so many of us to be callous to all but the relative meaning of careless phrases had not been given to Innes, and her words fell upon his bare sense of propriety.
'Jealous,' he said, 'of a married woman? I find that difficult to understand.'
Violet's face straightened out.
'Don't be absurd, Horace.These boys are always jealous of somebody or other--it's the occupation of their lives! I really don't see how one can prevent it.'
'It seems to me that a self-respecting woman should see how.Your point of view in these matters is incomprehensible.'
'Perhaps,' Violet was driven by righteous anger to say, 'you find Miss Anderson's easier to understand.'
Colonel Innes's face took its regimental disciplinary look, and, though his eyes were aroused, his words were quiet with repression.
'I see no reason to discuss Miss Anderson with you,' he said.'She has nothing to do with what we are talking about.'
'Oh, don't you, really! Hasn't she, indeed! I take it you are trying to make me believe that compromising things are said about Mr.Holmcroft and me at the Club.Well, I advise you to keep your ears open a little more, and listen to the things said about you and Madeline Anderson there.But I don't suppose you would be in such a hurry to repeat them to HER.'
Innes turned very white, and the rigidity of his face gave place to heavy dismay.His look was that of a man upon whom misfortune had fallen out of a clear sky.For an instant he stared at his wife.
When he spoke his voice was altered.
'For God's sake!' he said, 'let us have done with this pitiful wrangling.I dare say you can take care of yourself; at all events, I only meant to warn you.But now you must tell me exactly what you mean by this that you have said--this--about--'
'The fat's in the fire,' was Mrs.Innes's reflection.
'Certainly, I'll tell you--'
'Don't shout, please!'
'I mean simply that all Simla is talking about your affair with Miss Anderson.You may imagine that because you are fifteen years older than she is things won't be thought of, but they are, and I hear it's been spoken about at Viceregal Lodge.I KNOW Lady Bloomfield has noticed it, for she herself mentioned it to me.I told her Ihadn't the slightest objection, and neither have I, but there's an old proverb about people in glass houses.What are you going to do?'
Colonel Innes's expression was certainly alarming, and he had made a step toward her that had menace in it.
'I am going out,' he said, and turned and left her to her triumph.
