"So angry that he upset you?"
"it wasn't that — only partly! It is true I was a little upset yesterday morning. I have not been very well, and I had had a trying week-end. My husband — had a violent way of- of expressing himself. He shouted when he was at all irritated, and — it made my head ache. That is all."
"The cause of this violent irritation was, I think, his son's engagement to Miss de Silva?"
"Yes," Fay replied. "He was dreadfully angry with Geoffrey, and I — rather foolishly — tried to reason with him.,
"I quite understand. You were afraid that a really serious quarrel might spring up between your stepson and his father?"
"Oh no, no!" Fay said quickly. "I knew that Geoffrey would never quarrel with his father. He was too much in awe of him. I was afraid that Arthur — that my husband might turn him out of the house. He was — in some ways — a very hard man."
Harding picked up his pencil, and regarded the point of it. "Lady Billington-Smith, you must forgive me if I distress you, but was this the only cause of the scene which took place between you and Sir Arthur? There was not, on your side, any feeling of jealousy?"
"Jealousy?" she repeated blankly.
He raised his eyes. "You were not yourself angry perhaps hurt — at any undue attention Sir Arthur might have paid to one of your guests?"
She flushed. "No. I was not- angry, or hurt. Certainly not jealous. My husband had a — a playful, gallant way of — of treating women, but it didn't mean anything. Such an idea never entered my head. It was purely on Geoffrey's account, the — the scene."