"What are you saying?" asked Bertie dreamily. He was still under the influence of that heavy moral atmosphere; he had not quite understood, not grasped the idea. "What was it you said?" he repeated.
"I shall go myself and call at the house," Frank reiterated.
"At what house? Where?"
"Why, at the Rhodes'—on Eva. Are you daft?"
But Bertie rose to his feet, and his eyes glittered in his pale face like black diamonds with a hundred facets.
"What to do there?" he said with a convulsive effort in his throat to keep his voice calm.
"To talk to her and set matters straight; I cannot bear it. It has gone on too long."
"You are a fool!" said Van Maeren shortly.
"Why am I a fool?"
"Why are you a fool? You have not a grain of self-respect. Do you really think of going there?"