He stood reflectively rubbing his chin.
"Whose child is it going to be?" I asked.
"Grayle's the father. I suppose that, as Raney's taken up his present attitude——" He left the sentence unfinished and began to fill a pipe. "Ye gods, what a sweet mess people can get themselves into!"
"When's the event expected?"
"Pretty soon, I fancy. Violet didn't tell me the exact date, but she did give me to understand very plainly that Sonia mustn't be left by herself any longer. She was extraordinarily overwrought and hysterical, when I saw her, but for some reason or other I never imagined.... I say, Stornaway, if it had been Raney's child, if this had happened a year ago?"
"Nothing would have saved them," I answered, "though it might have kept them artificially together, making a hell of each other's lives, when they'd be far happier apart. O'Rane was more responsible than any man for the break-up of their life; Grayle was only the instrument. The tragedy began when they married."
George smiled grimly.
"I suppose even Raney will see it, when his wife gives birth to another man's child.... And then what? Will he divorce her then? Have we got to go through all this racket again? In the meantime the nursing-home problem——"
He stopped guiltily, as the door opened and O'Rane came in to say good-night to me.
"Who's been to call here?" he asked George. "I met a car driving away."