'And do you intend to use the information you have thus obtained—if I may say it—under false pretences?'
'My dear sir, you are forgetting yourself. You must remember that you are talking to a lady.'
'A lady!' cried Wentworth in his anguish.
'Yes, sir, a lady; and you must be careful how you talk to this lady. There was no false pretence about it, if you remember. What you told me was in conversation; I didn't ask you for it. I didn't even make the first advances towards your acquaintance.'
'But you must admit, Miss Brewster, that it is very unfair to get a man to engage in what he thinks is a private conversation, and then to publish what he has said.'
'My dear sir, if that were the case, how would we get anything for publication that people didn't want to be known? Why, I remember once, when the Secretary of State——'
'Yes,' interrupted Wentworth wearily; 'Fleming told me that story.'
'Oh, did he? Well, I'm sure I'm much obliged to him. Then I need not repeat it.'
'Do you mean to say that you intend to send to the Argus for publication what I have told you in confidence?'
'Certainly. As I said before, that is what I am here for. Besides, there was no "in confidence" about it.'