"It's no use losing your temper, Chris. It was the merest chance that I happened to see you. As you say, it's no business of mine, but as Mrs. Heriot is the class of woman she is, I say that you ought to tell your wife the truth. You can't trust Mrs. Heriot— she'll make the devil's own mischief one of these days."
Chris said "Rot!" with violence. "What do you mean, 'the class of woman Mrs. Heriot is'?—she's a friend of mine."
He did not care in the least what Feathers said of Mrs. Heriot, but the sheer "cussedness" of his nature drove him to defend her; if Feathers had adopted the other attitude Chris would have veered round instantly.
But for once Feathers forgot to be tactful. He was burning with anger against his friend, more for Marie's sake than for any other reason; he could not understand the circumstances of this marriage at all, though little by little he was beginning to see that there 79 was nothing of real affection about it.
He said again vehemently: "It's your duty to tell Mrs. Lawless the truth! Supposing somebody else saw you besides myself? A nice garbled version of it she might hear! It could be worked up properly, I can tell you—moonlight night, and you two out there on an empty yacht, or smack, or whatever it was."
He laughed cynically. "What the devil you want to knock about with that woman for, beats me! She's made up, she's bad form, she's everything objectionable."
Chris laughed defiantly. He was furious at being hauled over the coals in such a manner, more especially as Feathers had never made the slightest attempt to do such a thing before.
"She amuses me, anyway," he said, violently. "She doesn't bore me to death, as the rest of her sex do, and you can put that in your pipe and smoke it."
The rest of her sex. The words hammered themselves into the numbed brain of poor little Marie Celeste as she stood there in the passage, not daring to move.
The rest of her sex. That included her then—that must include her! Oh, how could he be so cruel! How could he, when she loved him with every beat of her heart?