Draycott ignored the other's words.
"Dodwell owed Beaton a grudge, and I owed Dodwell money, or at least, he said I did."
"You're a pretty bounder--I said you did!"
"He said I did. As a matter of fact, I don't believe that I owed him a farthing; but he made out that I owed him a lot, more than I could pay without going to the Jews, which I had promised my father I never would do. I didn't want to have a row, or a scandal; I've seen since what a fool I was, but it seemed to me then that he had got me under his thumb. He had, as I said, a grudge against Beaton; that was about some money which he said Beaton owed him and which Beaton wouldn't pay."
"If I had posted Mr. Beaton, as I ought to have done, that would have brought him to his senses, and then Mr. Draycott wouldn't have been standing there, stuffed with the lies he's going to tell."
Still Draycott continued to ignore the other's words; he went on with his story as if Dodwell was not persistently interrupting.
"Dodwell said to me that if I would help him to get even with Beaton, he would say no more about the money which he made out I owed him, and as I was tired of his perpetual dunning, I was cad enough to listen."
"You were a cad first, last, and altogether, Mr. Draycott."
"Then that night we played poker, and Dodwell said that he had seen Beaton cheating; then he looked at me, and he winked; I knew what he meant, and I said that I had too--but I hadn't."
There arose an outcry from those who heard him; all the men began speaking at once. Major Reith called them to order.