“Most certainly.”
“You are mistaken. I am ready to allow that there may be many excellent women in the world. I do not know by what sign you knew that there had been an affair in my past about which I do not care to think. I can assure you that it has not prejudiced me against your sex.”
Miss Thane listened to this with her usual placidity, and, far from showing discomfiture, merely said: “It seems to me very inexplicable that you can have met your cousin with so open a mind and yet failed to fall instantly in love with her.”
He gave a short laugh. “There is no fear of my falling in love, ma’am. I learned my lesson early in life, but believe me, I have not forgotten it!”
“How melancholy it is to reflect that so few people have the good sense to profit by their experience as you have done!” said Miss Thane soulfully. “I wonder if we should warn your cousins of the disillusionment in store for them?”
“I do not think it will be necessary, Miss Thane. Moreover, there is no immediate likelihood of their being married. Ludovic’s affairs seem to me to be in as bad a way as they well might be.”
She became serious at once. “Do you think them hopeless?”
“No, not hopeless,” he replied. “But we have no certainty of the talisman ring being in Basil Lavenham’s possession, and to be frank with you, I don’t place much dependence upon its being in the priest’s hole, even if he has got it. Assuming that he has, I think he would remove it from a hiding-place known to Ludovic the instant he suspected his presence in the neighbourhood.”
“But does he suspect his presence?”
“There is no saying what the Beau suspects, Miss Thane. Don’t allow Ludovic to convince you that we have to deal with a fool! He is no such thing, I assure you.”