'Has she? The engagement was broken off finally when Gorley left England. They had nothing more to do with one another, no common interests, no common future. Has she?'
'It seems to me, yes!'
'We have kept the knowledge from her up till now. No one could blame you if you kept it from her a little longer.'
The argument smacked of sophistry to Drake. He had an unreasoned conviction that the girl had a right to learn the truth from him.
'I think I ought to tell her if she asks me.'
'I might forbid you to do it,' grumbled Mr. Le Mesurier.
'Do you?' asked Drake. The question brought Mr. Le Mesurier up short. It was a direct question, inviting a responsible decision, and Mr. Le Mesurier was averse by nature to making such decisions out of hand. If Drake cared for Clarice, he reflected, it was really in Drake's province to decide the point rather than in his own.
'I don't know enough of you,' he replied, 'to either forbid or give you permission.'
Drake wondered what the sentence meant.
'In that case I must take my own course,' he said, and he went out of the room and mounted the stairs.