"You are worried."
"My dear man, when am I anything else but worried, with Jim for a husband, and the Duke behaving like Shylock at his worst? You and Jim have made a mess of things."
"I don't know about Jim," said Lionel, resenting this ungrateful speech, "but I did my best to put matters in the right light."
"Oh, Lord, who wanted a right light? The less light on Jim's and my affairs the better. A few white lies would have resulted in a larger sum than that miserable two hundred with which the Duke insulted us."
"I am not in the habit of telling lies, white or black, Lady James."
"I daresay. You parsons are so ridiculously punctilious. As if diplomatic lies were not as oil on the troubled waters of this world."
"I did not come to discuss this," said Lionel, seeing how utterly impossible she was, "but to help you in your trouble."
"What trouble?"
"I don't know. I was reading in the library, when a feeling came to me that I must see you at once--that you needed assistance."
Leah looked rather queer. What could he possibly know of her late experience? "Telepathy, I suppose."