“Well, if I do, you will have to promise me first that you will forgive, beforehand, all that I shall say.”
“Certainly, Danton. I understand perfectly that you were only teasing your sister, and I know something about the lengths to which brothers will go on occasions of that kind, as well as some of the liberties they will take, not alone with their sister themselves, but also with any other person who happens to be under discussion. Believe me, I will take all that you said in an utterly impersonal manner.”
“Well, I accused her of being in love with you, of course.”
“Yes. And then?”
“I told her that you were a widower, but——”
“Go on.”
“Confound it, I can’t! I simply explained in my own way, which won’t bear repeating now, that you had worshiped your first wife, and that you would wear sackcloth and ashes the rest of your days—please forgive me, old man!—and that there was no hope that another could ever take her place in your heart.”
“What next?” asked Nick curtly.
“Why, then I made fun of your profession. I asked her how she would like to be known as Mrs. Detective Carter, and all that, don’t you know—and I kept at it until I got her thoroughly angry.”
“Well?”