He was silent during our walk. So was I, for I was deliberating how best to introduce the subject. As it happened, he made the task easy for me, as after finding a comfortable seat and lighting a cigarette, he turned to me with—
"Now, old fellow, what is it you have on your mind? Out with it!"
I told him—told him fully and frankly everything that Evie had mentioned to me concerning him, and I finished by warning him that I was determined to exercise the right she had given me to protect her. He listened to me attentively and, one might have thought, even sympathetically. When I had concluded, he sat silent awhile; then, looking me full in the eyes, he remarked—
"I suppose, Sutgrove, if I tell you that this story of the influence I am supposed to exercise over Miss Maitland is absolute news to me, you will not believe me?"
I was staggered, and my astonishment must have been visible in my face, for he continued—
"You may be surprised, but not half so much as I have been, by what you have told me. Really, the whole story sounds the maddest farrago of nonsense I have ever heard."
I was about to make an angry retort, but he checked me with a gesture—
"I do not mean any offence," he said; "for I can quite understand what your feelings on the subject must be. I, no more than yourself, would tolerate any unwarrantable interference such as you describe. It is just as well that you should have mentioned the matter to me, however, for you will know so much better how to proceed."
"What do you mean?" I gasped.
"Why, what else than that you will not waste any time before obtaining medical advice for Miss Maitland," he replied.