"I don't think your friends would take that view," said Derrington, grimly. "I came to hear of the matter quite by chance, and it is plain that you won over a hundred pounds by cheating."
"It's that horrid Mrs. Wayflete who told you----"
"No. If Mrs. Wayflete knows, she has held her tongue. I learned it from a source of which you are ignorant. But the fact remains, you cheated, and if your friends knew it you would be ostracized by all of them."
"As if they did not do these things themselves," retorted Mrs. Ward; "but since you have been so nasty, I intend to be nasty, too."
"I shouldn't advise you to be nasty to me, Mrs. Ward. I have a large reserve fund of strength."
"You'll need it all to hold your own against me." Lord Derrington nodded. "I quite admit that you are a dangerous woman," he said quietly.
"Well, and in what way have you made up your mind to be nasty?"
Mrs. Ward laughed. "You needn't repeat my adjectives," she said in her most frivolous manner. "If you want to know the way in which I intend to protect myself----"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean this," cried the little woman, growing angry all at once. "I am not going to be threatened about that unfortunate episode connected with the cards--it was that horrid Mrs. Wayflete who told you, so don't deny it--I am not going to be threatened without holding my own. Besides, I want Dorothy to marry your grandson."