"Sounds hardly possible. Why should she?"
"My dear! He is not a young man exactly and she was obviously attracted by Maur. Hence these stripes!"
"Have you seen his face?"
"The men are rather inclined to doubt Maur's version."
"My dear! The men! She'd have had them all in tow if she hadn't suddenly concentrated upon Maur and disgusted everybody. Men are wax when it comes to a red head and a white skin. Children!"
"But what does Maur exactly say?"
"Apparently Sterne saw green over the portrait-sittings and insulted him. Maur referred him to his own little indiscretion and all parties began to snarl about their rights. The girl appears to have played the part of passive resister to both sides. That Type of Woman.... Well, Sterne lost his temper and hit Maur unawares when he was quite defenceless, and then the girl rushed between them and gave away the true relationship. From what one gathers, she was infatuated with Maur—got him to paint her twice over for an excuse to be with him—and, while he remained under the impression that she was Sterne's widowed sister, he admits to having considered the possibilities of matrimony. His discovery of what she really was—you know they say the husband divorced her and is still alive?—startled him into confessing that his feelings had altered in one respect.
"There was nothing for it then but for her to go home with Sterne; and Maur can hardly be blamed for doing his duty by this credulous Station which has also been suffering under the delusion that all was square and above-board."
"For the sake of the natives alone, one's got to be so down upon That Sort of Thing in this country."
"All the same," drawled the more tolerant voice of Somebody's Husband, "I don't see how anybody has suffered particularly except the Eternal Triangle. I've always considered Sterne a jolly decent fellow, and Mrs. Clifford not nearly so red-haired as Maur has probably painted her."