Not when you
see where I stand. That is what I am getting at. That is what I am
naturally anxious to make clear to you now that we have intermarried,
now that you are my stepson-in-law. You're young, you know, you're
young, and you're hard and fast. Only years can give a mind
_tone_--mitigate the varnish of education. I gather from this
letter--and your face--that you are one of the party that participated
in that little affair at Lagune's."
He stuck out a finger at a point he had just seen. "By-the-bye!--That
accounts for Ethel," he said.
Ethel rapped down the mustard on the table. "It does," she said, but
not very loudly.
"But you had met before?" said Chaffery.
"At Whortley," said Lewisham.
"I see," said Chaffery.
"I was in--I was one of those who arranged the exposure," said
Lewisham. "And now you have raised the matter, I am bound to say--"
"I knew," interrupted Chaffery. "But what a shock that was for
Lagune!" He looked down at his toes for a moment with the corners of
his mouth tucked in. "The hand dodge wasn't bad, you know," he said,
with a queer sidelong smile.
Lewisham was very busy for a moment trying to get this remark in
focus. "I don't see it in the same light as you do," he explained at
last.
"Can't get away from your moral bias, eh?--Well, well.
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