'Why? Because I would not go under any circumstances or pressure, from what you tell me.'
'As to what, or whom? Hew Montgomerie?'
'Hew be hanged! No.'
'Who then?'
'Annabelle Erroll,' said Fotheringhame, uttering the name sadly, softly, and with unction.
'So, thereby hangs a tale.'
'Yes, old fellow—a devil of a tale I would rather not unfold.'
'Then you have had your little weakness too?'
'Of course; I've been in love like other—fools; who has not?'
Cecil Falconer, however, was too full of his own affair to ponder long over the mysterious intimacy that existed, or had existed, between Annabelle Erroll and Leslie Fotheringhame.