“I don’t know him.”

“That is a lie!” said Miss Van Tuyn to herself.

To Lady Sellingworth she said:

“Then if you don’t know Mr. Arabian you are only repeating hearsay.”

“No!”

“But you must be!”

“I am not.”

“Adela, you are incomprehensible, or else I must be densely stupid. One or the other!”

“One may know things about a man’s character and life without being personally acquainted with him.”

“Then it’s hearsay. I am not going to drop Mr. Arabian because of hearsay, more especially when I don’t even know what the hearsay is.”