'And am I not to be told my offence?' he said, looking at her keenly.
'Not here,' she replied. 'You can ask my husband, if you like.'
'Really?' he said. 'You refer me to him, then? We must try and come to an understanding together, I suppose.'
'When you have heard him,' she said, 'there is one thing I shall have to say to you myself.'
'May I come and hear it later?' asked Caffyn, and Mabel gave a little sign of assent as she left the table.
'I shall send down for you when we're ready,' said Mrs. Featherstone at the door. 'Will those who have any changes to make mind coming now—it's so late, and we must get in the way of being punctual.'
One or two who were playing servants or character-parts left the table immediately; the others remained, and Harold, whose dressing would not take him long, found himself next to Mark, and rather apart from the men, at the host's end of the table.
'You're the very man I wanted to have a little talk with!' he began in an easy conversational manner. 'Your wife seems deucedly annoyed with me for some reason—she says you can explain. Now, just tell me quietly without any nonsense—what's it all about, eh?'
Now that Mark had seen the other's conduct in its true light he was really indignant: Caffyn seemed more undesirable an associate than ever. He would have been justified in taking a high standpoint from which to deal with him—since whatever his own errors had been, they would never be revealed now—but somehow, he adopted an almost conciliatory tone.
'The fact is,' he replied, with an embarrassed cough, 'it's about that letter of Holroyd's.'