"'Gratitude is a virtue, remember, though it does not always lead to virtue where politics are concerned.'
"'He was lately seen in Sussex, where she had temporarily taken up her residence.'
"'After all, more ways than one lead to the Divorce Court.'"
There was a long pause.
"And you mean to tell me," Lady Wereminster began very slowly. Then she stopped, her voice was shaking.
Brand bowed his head.
"Unmistakable. I heard a man laugh at it just now in the club. 'Farquharson and——' he said. Then he saw me."
Lady Wereminster put out a warning hand.
"No names, please; it's not safe even here. Oh, if I were a man!" Her eyes blazed. "Couldn't one horsewhip the editor? or—no, that would make a scandal at once. That's where people like these have everything in their hands. Nothing is so easy to spread as a lie about a woman. One word of suspicion and you could blacken Una herself. This must be stopped—but how? What can we do?"
For the first time in her life she was identifying herself with Brand, even consulting him on mutual terms.