She restated the subject of her last letter in as few words as possible. When she had finished, he asked her a number of questions which betrayed a familiar knowledge of the physiology of her extremity. She wondered where he could have gained his information, not without many jealous pangs at this suggestion of his having been equally intimate with others of her sex.
"Hang it all! It's not nearly so bad as it might be," he said presently.
"What do you mean?"
"Why that, if every woman who got into the same scrape did nothing to help herself, the world would be over-populated in five minutes."
Mavis sat bolt upright. Her hands grasped the arms of her chair; her eyes stared straight before her. There arose to her quick fancy the recollection of certain confidences of Miss Allen, which had hinted at hideous malpractices of the underworld of vice, affecting women in a similar condition to hers.
"Well?" said Perigal.
The sound of his voice recalled her to the present.
Mavis rose, placed a hand on each arm of Perigal's chair, and leant over so as to look him full in the eyes, as she said icily:
"Do you know what you are saying?"
"Eh! Dear little Mavis. You take everything so seriously," he remarked, as he kissed her lightly on the cheek.