‘Are you engaged to her?’
‘Engaged to marry her? No.’
He saw in Mrs. Damerel’s clear eye that she convicted him of ambiguities.
‘You have not even made her a promise of marriage?’
‘How much simpler, if you would advance a clear charge. I will answer it honestly.’
Mrs. Damerel seemed to weigh the value of this undertaking. Tarrant met her gaze with steady indifference.
‘It may only be a piece of scandal,—a mistake, or a malicious invention. I have been told that—that you are in everything but law my niece’s husband.’
They regarded each other during a moment’s silence. Tarrant’s look indicated rapid and anxious thought.
‘It seems,’ he said at length, ‘that you have no great faith in the person who told you this.’
‘It is the easiest matter in the world to find out whether the story is true or not. Inquiries at Falmouth would be quite sufficient, I dare say. I give you the opportunity of keeping it quiet, that’s all.’