Despencer smiled compassionately.
“Judging from my own experience in such cases, I should say that the lady’s answer would be ‘No.’”
For a minute Hammond stood irresolute. Despencer’s sneer had shown him where he stood. Instead of silencing a slanderer, he was discussing the truth of the slander with the man who had uttered it. If he had really had confidence in the woman he had undertaken to defend, it was to her, not to this cynical stranger, that he ought to have been addressing his inquiries. He felt bitterly conscious of his false position, yet he could not resist going on.
“Where did you hear this rumor?” he asked, after a brief pause, during which Despencer had closely watched every shade of expression on his face.
“I can hardly tell you, I have heard it from so many quarters,” was the careless reply. “I thought everybody knew it.”
“Do you mean by that that everybody believes it?” demanded Hammond.
“Yes; but that is no reason why you should, if you would rather not. Take my advice, treat it as a mere passing calumny, and forget all about it.”
Hammond glanced at him questioningly.
“And you, Despencer—of course, you believe this?”
“Well, yes; but I shall be happy to withdraw it.”