"Your father. Can't you read between the lines, Humphries? All that pride of race and name ... it was hard for him to write that letter.... He's an old man—I looked him up in the Peerage. And he—his heart's broken, Humphries."
The Marquis made an inarticulate little sound but said nothing and remained standing at attention.
"Tell me, Humphries. I want to help you. Was it—a girl?"
The Marquis answered at last, in a jerky voice:
"No, sir. The Sandhurst affair, you mean? It was—oh, a lot of things."
"Was a girl concerned in any way—were you engaged or anything—when you left England?"
"In a way."
The Marquis' lip was trembling.
"You lost her, because of the scandal. Is that it?"
With sure, deft hand the C.O. was dissecting his very soul.