“Yes, I know,” she said. “But why should I remember it?”

“Because you might prefer,” I said, “to get the decision altered.”

She lifted her eyes to me.

“Prefer it to what?” she enquired.

“Why, to permitting your husband,” I said, “to hear from my lips the story of your relations with his brother Septimus.”

“Oh, but I don’t mind that,” she said, “now that I’ve repented. And besides, as I told you, I’d forgotten all about it.”

With growing uneasiness, I took another deep breath.

“But surely you’re not prepared,” I said, “to let me tell him?”

“On the contrary,” she said, “I should welcome it, though I doubt if it would interest him after all the others.”

I began to sway a little.