He was incapable of believing that they were not lovers in the term's worst accepted sense. And what man has done man can do, and the woman who takes one step in that direction will take another, he promised himself.
Ferlie, nervous of Cyprian's penetration in the matter, attacked Digby one afternoon, when the work was about half finished.
"I don't think you quite understand," she said, "the strain this deception is putting upon me. Cyprian is inventing reasons in his own mind for my looking so ill. But I simply can't sleep."
"Tell him then."
"Do you really imagine that he would allow you to finish this, if I did?"
"In that case I should distinctly advise you not to tell him."
"Oh, you are a cad!" she burst out. "What man, worthy of the name, would take advantage of a private confidence inadvertently yielded, to further his own ends?"
"You forget," he said, "your Cyprian never, from the beginning, would admit that I was worthy of the name. Do you happen to know the terms in which he forbade me your company?"
"Whatever he said he was right."
"Why not, therefore, resign yourself to the worst where my actions are under discussion?"