"Oh—I don't care whose fault it is!"
"But you care?"
"Yes." She almost whispered it.
He was struck by that sudden drop from vehemence to pathos.
"He is a very great friend of yours?"
"Yes."
"And—he's just married, isn't he?"
"Yes. And he isn't very well off. I don't think he could afford——" she said.
He coloured painfully as if she had suspected him of a desire to traffic in Tanqueray's poverty.
"We should pay him very well," he said.