"Oh! this is getting beyond a joke!" he exclaimed, when I had given him the irreducible minimum of information. "I've a good mind to drop a hint to Lady Dainton."
"My dear fellow, the intimacy is recognized and approved by her. You can't tell her anything she doesn't know."
He picked up his tumbler and sipped thoughtfully.
"I could tell her a number of things," he returned after a pause. "How Crabtree pumped me to find out what they were worth, whether Crowley was their own property and so forth. As cousin to an undischarged bankrupt he conceives himself to be conferring a favour on a family he once described in my hearing to Beaumorris as 'very decent middle-class people.' Fair spoil, in other words, for my Lord Beaumorris and his family. It would be very salutary for Lady Dainton to hear that."
"It will hardly increase your present inconsiderable popularity," I suggested.
He finished his drink and walked with me to the door.
"There's no harm in telling Sonia he's a cad," he insisted.
"If she cares for him, it won't shake her: if she doesn't, it'll make her very angry. I wish to God I hadn't told you, Raney. Promise me at least that you won't choose my house to do it in!"
"Oh, the whole thing may be a mare's nest," he answered easily. "I shan't act till I've something to act on. Have you been invited to Crowley Court this autumn?"
"I've been told to fix my own time," I replied.