“You think so? I might be.”
“What?”
“Oh, not her husband, not her lover, not her friend.”
“What then?”
Sergius avoided answering.
“You would have her settle down with Vernon in Phillimore Place?” he said. “Play the wife to his noble husband? Well, I know there's been some idea of that, as I told you yesterday.”
The clock chimed ten. Although Sergius seemed so calm, so self-possessed, Anthony observed that now he paid no heed to the little, devilish note of time. This new subject of conversation had been Anthony's weapon. Desperately he had used it, and not, it seemed, altogether in vain.
“Yes; as you told me yesterday.”
“And it seems good to you?”
“It seems to me the only thing possible now.”