“Ah,” said Tarlyon.
“What I mean is,” said Tarlyon, “that you can’t expect to be patted on the back when you are trying to play the fool with a man’s wife....”
Silence....
“That, of course,” said Ivor thoughtfully, “is a sound point of view. In fact it is the only point of view. But it seems to come strangely from you, Lord Tarlyon.”
“My life is my own business, Marlay.”
“Of course.”
Silence....
“Then why the hell,” asked Lord Tarlyon, “are you mixing yourself up in it?”
The slightly frozen blue eyes were looking very steadily, very mockingly, at Ivor. And Ivor suddenly blazed away at them: “I haven’t given a thought to your life, Tarlyon. And I am so little thinking of playing the fool with your wife, as you call it, that you are the last person in the world with whom I would discuss your wife!”
Tarlyon leapt up as though a bullet had ripped his skin——