"Yes," the tall man answered. "We all know generally. But only one man accurately. His solicitor was informed all the while. When I want a secret kept that's the man I'm going to employ."
"I'd see him right away if I were you," suggested Charlotte, and Lady Bellingdown frowned.
"I believe Nibbetts would marry Nina to-morrow if she'd say yes," Waltheof continued. "But she won't. She won't say yes to any man. Once was enough for her. That's flat."
"If he cares so much for her he has a poor way of showing it. I've never heard him give her a civil word." The bride spoke out of the richness of her experience.
"I'm certain she cares for him," averred Lady Bellingdown. "And he's a brute to her."
"It's the crime that stands between them," Waltheof said with decision. "Nibbetts is queer. And it's that that's preyed on his mind until he's not quite all there, don't you know."
"Everybody knows his father is queer," contributed their hostess.
They dropped the subject after a while without getting a step further than when they started. But they didn't drop gossip. Dinghal, with his broken nose, would have been in his element at Bellingdown. But he was still in Umballa, suffering tortures from catarrh.
"Caryll Carleigh's to be married on the twelfth." Lady Kitty flung the announcement to Lady Charlotte.
"So soon?"