"Dr Hughes, when that man in the omnibus said I had stolen your purse, did you believe him?"
"I did not."
"Not for an instant?"
"Not for a single instant. And that for the best of reasons; my purse had not been stolen. I could have bitten my tongue off directly I had allowed myself to hint that it might have been; because it instantly occurred to me that it was well within the range of possibility that I had left it behind me at a shop at which I had been making some purchases. I drove straight back to the shop, and there it was."
"Why didn't you allow me to explain?"
"There was nothing for you to explain. As a matter of fact the explanation would have had to come from me, and I was in too bad a temper for that. Women have a reputation for making spectacles of themselves in that particular fashion; it didn't please me to think that I'd fallen in line with my sisters." She added, after a pause: "You've no notion what a vile temper I have."
"I doubt if it's such a very bad one."
"You doubt? You don't! You, of all people, ought to know what kind of temper I've got."
He smiled enigmatically.
"I do."