"Well, I think a girl with a shady father, who does her best to ingratiate herself with prejudiced people because she wants to marry their son is clever."
"What right have you to say that my father is shady?" asked Claudia, still composed, and mistress of herself.
Lady Wyke laughed. "Oh, your father and I have had quite a correspondence," she said, airily. "He was a great friend of my late husband's, you know, and professes anxiety to help me discover who killed poor Hector. He writes suggesting theories, and I write back to say that he is talking rubbish. But I rather think," added the woman, shrewdly, "that there is more in your father's attentions to me than zeal for revenge on the man who murdered Hector."
"Indeed!" Claudia coloured as she knew very well what her father's intentions were. "But all this does not warrant your calling him shady."
"Well, no. All the same, I may have other reasons. Miss Lemby. I think you are a nice honest girl----"
"Pardon me, but isn't this conversation rather personal?"
"I mean it to be," replied Lady Wyke, serenely. "You see, it is just as well that you and I should understand one another."
"I see no reason why we should. We are strangers," retorted Claudia, very much annoyed by the brazen impudence of the speaker. "Oh, I don't think we are strangers, Miss Lemby, seeing that you were on the eve of marrying my husband."
"Well, I didn t marry him, and what is more, I never wished to marry him. It was my father's scheme to----"
"To get money," interposed Lady Wyke, softly. "Didn't I say that he was shady, Miss Lemby? You, in a way, admit as much yourself."