"The deuce you are!" said Melville. "I beg your pardon, I'm sure," he added hastily, "but you rather took me by surprise. Pray accept my warm congratulations."
"The fact that I am engaged to be married to her," Sir Ross went on, taking no notice of the congratulations, "will perhaps serve as an excuse for what I am going to say. You come here too much, Mr. Ashley, and I don't like it—I don't like it. Your constant attendance excites remark, and may compromise Mrs. Sinclair. That, in the circumstances, is a thing which I cannot permit."
He drew himself up and endeavoured to assume an air of commanding dignity. Melville, on the track of a mystery, never made a mistake. How Mrs. Sinclair contemplated marrying Sir Ross Buchanan, or anybody else, until Sir Geoffrey Holt shuffled off this mortal coil he could not conceive, but Sir Ross was evidently quite in earnest, and by fooling him to the top of his bent he might induce him to impart knowledge, which Melville had ever found a most valuable asset.
"I quite understand, Sir Ross," he murmured. "It is a most natural and proper feeling. But believe me, if I have been indiscreet I have erred through ignorance."
"You have been indiscreet," Sir Ross retorted, "and I am resolved that the indiscretion shall be terminated. I discussed the matter with Mrs. Sinclair yesterday, and, in point of fact, my appointment with her to-day was made that I might receive her answer."
"Forgive me if I'm dense," Melville said, "but even now I don't quite understand. That you might receive her answer to what?"
"You compel me to be candid," Sir Ross said, getting very red; "in plain English, I told Mrs. Sinclair that one of us—either you or I—must discontinue calling at her house, and I've come to know which it is to be."
Melville hugged himself.
"My dear Sir Ross," he protested, "you do me too much honour. I could never aspire to be your rival in any case. In this case the honour of your jealousy is so unnecessary. My relationship to Mrs. Sinclair puts any idea of a more intimate tie out of the question."
"What is your relationship to her?" Sir Ross asked bluntly.