Hammond gave a short laugh.
“Despencer, I begin actually to respect you. It can be no easy thing to attain to such a height of perfect brutality as yours. You must have taken great pains with yourself.”
“You may say what you like, Hammond, as long as you are not violent. I always draw the line at violence.”
“Do you have to draw it often?”
Even the trained and admirable temper of Despencer gave way under this taunt, and a red flush suffused his pale cheeks.
“Hammond, do you mean to be insulting?”
“Why, do you mind much? I should have thought the hydrogen would have stood it.”
The words were drowned in a sudden crash of music and hand-clapping as the door behind them opened, and Captain Mauleverer came through with Belle Yorke on his arm.
Despencer drew to one side with a bow as they approached.
“Ah, captain, taking Lord Severn’s place, I see,” he remarked, with a sarcastic emphasis intended for Hammond’s ear, and passed back into the concert-room.