"So I suppose. What particular method did you adopt this time?"
"First, I chivied our amiable parson from pillar to post, in this very room, till I'd forced the admission of an important fact from him, and the practical admission of another."
"And then," continued Kent-Lauriston, "you went and tried the effect of your statements on the young ladies."
"I believe you're equipped with X-rays instead of eyes, Kent-Lauriston, for you were smoking down here and couldn't have seen me!"
"No, but I saw the ladies—afterwards."
"To speak to?"
"Oh, no. One of them at least has a rooted aversion to me. I know too much."
"What were they doing?"
"Pulling each other's hair out, I should judge, or its equivalent in polite society. What did you learn from the parson?"
"That he had not married Kingsland to Lady Isabelle; that Kingsland had been married to somebody; and a refusal to say that that somebody was Miss Fitzgerald, which was tantamount to an admission of the fact."