"You speak of my husband having insulted me. What are you doing now?"
"I am trying to save you."
"Good Heavens! from what?"
"From him. Listen. I did not mean for you to go directly to Paris. You would travel. But at a certain date I could meet you there. I could meet you with—well, with a document of importance."
"Explain. I don't understand you at all."
"Suppose I put the case in certain legal hands here. Suppose they worked it up with skill and shrewdness. Suppose they gained it. Suppose they secured a divorce between you and him on—grounds" ...
"Well? What grounds?"
"Of infidelity. You know the life he has lived. Or rather, you don't know. He has been so gay, so prominent, of late, that almost any well-feed lawyer could"—
Claire interrupted him, there. "Leave me at once," she said, pointing toward the door. "Leave me. I order you to do it!"
He obeyed her, but stopped when he had nearly reached the threshold.