Ingpen smiled teasingly.
"Now you're getting personal."
"And what if I am? With my headstrong husband going in for all sorts of schemes!" Hilda's voice was extraordinarily clear and defiant.
Edwin nervously rose.
"I'll just get some cigarettes," he mumbled.
Hilda and Ingpen scarcely gave him any attention. Already they were exciting themselves. Although he knew that the supply of cigarettes was in the dining-room, he toured half the house before going there; and then lit the gas and with strange deliberation drew the blinds; next he rang the bell for matches, and, having obtained them, lit a cigarette.
When he re-entered the drawing-room, Ingpen was saying with terrific conviction:
"You're quite wrong, as I've told you before. It's your instinct that's wrong, not your head. Women will do anything to satisfy their instincts, simply anything. They'll ruin your life in order to satisfy their instincts. Yes, even when they know jolly well their instincts are wrong!"
Edwin thought:
"Well, if these two mean to have a row, it's no affair of mine."