"Let's cut that out, shall we," he interrupted, "Let's talk like a sensible man and woman. Do you want us to drop your husband out of the B. & I. Board?"
"Nothing would give me greater pleasure," Josephine assured him. "I cannot imagine why you ever put him on."
Peter Phipps was a little staggered.
"Perhaps you don't know," he said, "that your husband's salary for doing nothing is four thousand pounds a year."
"I suppose you think him worth that," Josephine answered coldly, "or you would not pay it."
"He is worth nothing at all," Phipps declared bluntly. "I put him on the Board and I am paying him four thousand a year for a reason which I am surprised you have never guessed."
"How on earth should I?" Josephine demanded. "I know nothing whatever about business. On the face of it, I should think you were mad."
"We will leave the reason for Lord Dredlinton's appointment alone for the moment," Phipps continued. "I imagined that it would be gratifying to you. I imagined that the four thousand a year would be of some account in your housekeeping."
"You were entirely wrong, then," Josephine replied. "Whatever Lord Dredlinton may draw from your company, he has kept. Not one penny of it has come to me, directly or indirectly."
Phipps was staggered. He did not doubt for a second, however, that he was listening to the truth.