“What right had he to discuss family matters with you?” she demanded with asperity.
Thus Murray was jarred out of his air of easy confidence the first thing.
“Why—why, he didn’t exactly tell me,” he explained, “but my experience enabled me to surmise as much. Most men are like that.”
“I never thought Harry would be,” she said, looking at him reproachfully. “But it’s all right now,” she added.
“Yes, it’s all right now,” repeated Murray. He had intended to argue first the advisability of accepting her husband’s plan, but he deemed it unwise. He had suddenly lost faith in his powers of persuasion, so he resorted to guile. “Of course, you understand that life insurance is hedged about by many annoying restrictions,” he went on.
“I didn’t know it,” she returned.
“Oh, yes,” he said glibly, with a wink at Beckford. “Do you use gasoline at all?”
“Why, I have used it occasionally to take a spot out of a gown,” she admitted.
“Barred!” asserted Murray.
“I can’t do even the least little mite of cleaning with gasoline!” she exclaimed in dismay.