"Let us be practical, please," said I, becoming extremely stern. "Have you, or have you not, engaged yourself to marry Farrell?"
"Certainly I have not," she answered with vivacity. "He asked me, and I—well, I played for time."
I couldn't repress a small groan at this: or, rather, it was half a groan and half a sigh of relief. "Has he spoken to your mother?"
"No."
"Does your mother know about it?"
"Yes. I told her."
"Does she approve of this announcement in the papers? Has she sanctioned it?"
"Of course she does not—of course she has not.… Roddy, sit down and don't ask so many questions all of a heap. Sit down and light your pipe, and pass me a cigarette. Furnilove will bring in some whisky for you by and by."
"Thank you, Constantia; but I don't feel like staying. I've always maintained—oh, damnation!" I broke off.
"What have you always maintained, Roddy? Sit down and tell it. Are you not here because I sent for you? And didn't I send for you because I am in trouble? We are in a tangle, I tell you, and I'm asking you, on my knees, to untwist it. So light your pipe and, before we begin, tell me—What is it you have always maintained?"