He answered 'Yes!'
'She did? Then she's a widow?'
'No, she isn't,' said Temple, distracting me by submitting to the lead I distracted him by taking.
'Then her husband's alive?'
Temple denied it, and a devil seized him to perceive some comicality in the dialogue.
'Was she married?'
Temple said 'No,' with a lurking drollery about his lips. He added,
'It 's nothing to laugh over, Richie.'
'Am I laughing? Speak out. Did Edbury come to grief overnight in any way?'
Again Temple pronounced a negative, this time wilfully enigmatical: he confessed it, and accused me of the provocation. He dashed some laughter with gravity to prepare for my next assault.
'Was Edbury the one to throw up the marriage? Did he decline it?'