Sangster was looking at him curiously.
"Oh! I understood—what was the reason, then?" he asked.
Jimmy turned away. He found the other man's eyes somehow disconcerting.
"She's married already," he said in a stifled voice. "I—I always knew she had been married, of course. She made no secret of it. He—the brute—left her years ago; but last week—well, he turned up again. . . . She—we—we had always believed he was dead."
There was a little silence. Sangster was no longer looking at Jimmy; he was staring into the fire. Presently he began to whistle softly. Jimmy rounded on him.
"Oh, shut up!" he said irritably.
Sangster stopped at once. After a moment:
"And the—er—husband!" he submitted dryly. "You've—you've seen him, of course."
"No, I haven't. If I did—if I did, I'd break every bone in his infernal carcase," said Jimmy Challoner, between his teeth.
He stared down at his friend with defiant, eyes as he spoke.