The question was startling by reason of its context. The better to consider it Rowcliffe withdrew his protecting arm.
"No," he said, "not very many."
"But those you do know you get on with? You get on all right with
Mary?"
"Yes. I get on all right with 'Mary.'"
"You'd be horrid if you didn't. Mary's a dear."
"Well—I know where I am with her."
"And you get on all right—really—with Papa, as long as I'm not there."
"As long as you're not there, yes."
"So that," she pursued, "I'm the horrid thing that's happened to you? It looks like it."
"It feels like it. Let's say you're the horrid thing that's happened to me, and leave it at that."