“Yes, that creature.”
“Ah! Now I'd like to put a blunt question. Was your engagement, while it lasted, a happy one? I mean, of course, before he was attracted to Mrs. Silverdale.”
Norma Hailsham sat with knitted brows for a few moments before answering.
“That's difficult to answer,” she pointed out at last. “I must confess that I always felt he was thinking more of himself than of me, and it was a disappointment. But, you see, I was very keen on him; and that made a difference, of course.”
“What led to the breaking of your engagement?”
“You mean what led up to it? Well, we were having continual friction over Yvonne Silverdale. He was neglecting me and spending his time with her. Naturally, I spoke to him about it more than once. I wasn't going to be slighted on account of that woman.”
There was no mistaking the under-current of animosity in the girl's voice in the last sentence. Sir Clinton ignored it.
“What were your ideas about the relations between Mr. Hassendean and Mrs. Silverdale?”
Miss Hailsham's thin lips curled in undisguised contempt as she heard the question. She made a gesture as though averting herself from something distasteful.
“It's hardly necessary to enter into that, is it?” she demanded. “You can judge for yourself.”