"You mean when you tried to blackmail me into selling my shipping shares?"
Dredlinton frowned.
"'Blackmail' is not a word to be used between gentlemen," he protested. "Look here, can't you behave like a decent fellow—an ordinary human being, you know? You are not exactly my sort, but I am sure you're a man of honour, I haven't any objection to your friendship with my wife—none in the world."
"The sentiments which I entertain for your wife, Lord Dredlinton,"
Wingate declared, "are not sentiments of friendship."
Dredlinton paused in the act of lighting a cigar.
"What's that?" he exclaimed. "You mean that, after all, you've humbugged me, both of you?"
"Not in the way you seem to imagine. This much, however, is true, and it is just as well that you should know it. I love your wife and I intend to take her from you, in her time and mine."
Dredlinton lit his cigar and threw himself back into his chair.
"Well, you don't mince matters," he muttered.
"I see no reason why I should," was the calm reply.