"
Gregory leaned his forehead on his hand.
"The whole system is odious----" he was beginning.
Mr. Paramor chimed in.
"Let us keep to the facts; without the system."
The Rector spoke for the first time.
"I don't know what you mean about the system; both this man and this
woman are guilty----"
Gregory said in a voice that quivered with rage:
"Be so kind as not to use the expression, 'this woman.'"
The Rector glowered.
"What expression then----"
Mr. Pendyce's voice, to which the intimate trouble of his thoughts lent
a certain dignity, broke in:
"Gentlemen, this is a question concerning the honour of my house."
There was another and a longer silence, during which Mr. Paramor's eyes
haunted from face to face, while beyond the rose a smile writhed on his
lips.
"I suppose you have brought me down here, Pendyce, to give you my
opinion," he said at last. "Well; don't let these matters come into
court. If there is anything you can do to prevent it, do it. If your
pride stands in the way, put it in your pocket. If your sense of truth
stands in the way, forget it. Between personal delicacy and our law
of divorce there is no relation; between absolute truth and our law of
divorce there is no relation. I repeat, don't let these matters come
into court.
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