‘Well?’
‘Surely you must understand that before anyone is allowed to think of marriage with Marjorie Lindon he will have to show that his past, as the advertisements have it, will bear the fullest investigation.’
‘Is that so?—Will your past bear the fullest investigation?’
I winced.
‘At any rate, it is known to all the world.’
‘Is it?—Forgive me if I say, I doubt it. I doubt if, of any wise man, that can be said with truth. In all our lives there are episodes which we keep to ourselves.’
I felt that that was so true that, for the instant, I hardly knew what to say.
‘But there are episodes and episodes, and when it comes to a man being haunted one draws the line.’
‘Haunted?’
‘As you are.’