"Excuse me, we're not talking about the good it would do me, but the harm it would do him."
"Same thing," said Barbara. "Supposing you told everybody and nobody believed you?"
"Everybody will believe me. You forget that those stories have been going about long before Wednesday."
"All the better for Mr. Waddington and all the worse for you. You were compromised before Wednesday. Then why, if you didn't like being compromised, did you consent to come to tea alone with him when his wife was away?"
"I came on business, as you know."
"You came to borrow money from a man who had compromised you? If you're so careful of your reputation I should have thought that would have been the last thing you'd have done."
"You're forgetting my friendship with Mr. Waddington."
"You said business just now. Friendship or business, or business and friendship, I don't think you're making out a very good case for yourself, Mrs. Levitt. But supposing you did make it out, and supposing Mr. Waddington did lose his head and was making love to you on Wednesday, do you imagine people here are going to take your part against him?"
"He's not so popular in Wyck as all that."
"He mayn't be, but his caste is. Immensely popular with the county, which I suppose is all you care about. You must remember, Mrs. Levitt, that he's Mr. Waddington of Wyck; you're not fighting one Mr. Waddington, but three hundred years of Waddingtons. You're up against all his ancestors."