‘I professed nothing of the kind. I said I did not know Mrs. Forster.’
‘She is the same person.’
‘Pardon me, that is impossible. She may be living under that gentleman’s roof, she may even be bearing his name—but she is not his wife!’
It was now Sutherland’s turn to look astonished. Something in the man’s supercilious smile, in his growing audacity and self-possession, disconcerted him.
‘What!—do you actually insinuate——’
‘Nothing whatever, monsieur. I merely state a fact. But before we continue the conversation, may I ask you a question? Has the lady herself sent you here?’
‘No,’ returned Sutherland, with a heightened colour; ‘I came on my own responsibility.’
‘Oh!—a self-constituted champion, I presume?’
‘If you put it in that way, yes.’
‘You are a friend of hers, of course?’