Elaine shook her head.
"He scarcely mentioned you."
"Oh, I see," said John, suddenly enlightened; "he came to force his unpleasant attentions upon you. Is that it?"
Elaine was silent a moment. She was thinking how well John carried himself. The husband she had known, neurotic and nerveless and irritable, now appeared before her clear-eyed, calm and more manly than she had ever believed him to be. She felt herself drawn to him, as she had felt herself attracted on that last meeting in London. Her nature was quick and ready to forgive.
"I had to forbid him the house in the end, Bernard."
John sat suddenly erect.
"Was he impudent to you?"
The sudden lowering of his brows and tension of his figure caught Elaine's interest.
"Then you do mind, Bernard?" she asked quietly.
"Of course I mind, when you are insulted," he returned. "Or, rather, I ought to mind."