"I prefer plain speaking."
"Well, that people would begin to talk malicious gossip about yourself and my husband."
Rivière interrupted again. "This discussion is an insult to Miss Verney."
But Elaine answered: "I prefer to thresh it out.... What people say matters nothing to me. In any case, nobody knows that Mr Rivière is your husband."
"But they will."
"You mean that you'll tell them?"
"It must come out."
"You mean that you want Mr Rivière to return to you openly as your husband?"
"Naturally."
"Then why did you tell me yesterday that you had cut definitely loose from him? That you never wanted to see him again? That he was free to live out his life as John Rivière?"