"Do you think it in the best of taste to criticize Ferlie and myself when our destiny has been completely blasted in order that yours might flourish?" he inquired.
"What are you getting at? Ferlie is a Catholic."
"Driven to become one by a marriage to which she was driven by necessity for money. Has it never struck you that Ferlie and I meant a great deal to one another before Greville-Mainwaring appeared upon her horizon—and her family's?"
Peter looked blank.
"The little idiot never said so!"
"No. She did not consider herself at all, Peter."
"All the same, that being true, you gave her up to him pretty coolly, if I remember rightly. Even Mother remarked that you seemed to have lost interest in Ferlie."
"I was cowardly enough to leave that particular decision to Ferlie," admitted Cyprian. "I bear my share of all now. But I hardly see where you come in."
"What you've told me certainly rather slams the door in my face. I thought Ferlie had cut loose simply because Clifford was impossible; not because you were the only possible dispenser of her happiness. But as to Clifford—have you heard anything about my hypnotic experiments?"
"I know the line you've taken up. It must be hellish work."