Good-natured kindly fool that he was, he was thoroughly upset by that infernal old sponger's scandal. Just his luck to be told a darned awkward piece of news just after breakfast, so that he was likely to be annoyed with it all day. He was too thundering good-natured, that's what he was. He must adopt another line in future. Why the deuce should he worry over people's affairs? What the devil was a fellow to do in such infernally awkward circumstances—keep his mouth shut? Perhaps he ought to tell his wife. She might as well know, in case anything ever came of it. What's more he could shift the business on to her that way. It was a woman's job. They were pretty thick-skinned in that kind of thing. They'd be certain to try and drag him into it; but he'd be jolly careful they didn't. Yes, he was too darned considerate of others.
He reached home as he was growing unpleasantly hot. Spying Mrs. Selwyn reading on the shadiest verandah, he made for her and threw himself into a canvas chair close by. The bodyguard flopped upon the floor at his feet, and the party fell to heaving up and down. The sudden assault caused Mrs. Selwyn to look over the edge of her book.
"Hilton, how soon are you going to learn a little consideration for others?" she said sharply. "No single other man I could name would throw himself and two smelling dogs down in the one spot we are trying to keep cool."
Selwyn, tumbled pell-mell from high thoughts, turned very sour.
"It seems a little hard that a fellow mayn't crawl into the shade for a minute or two. I am the only one here with sufficient spirit to take a decent walk of a morning. The rest of you gasp about in easy chairs expecting to be waited on."
Mrs. Selwyn made no reply and resumed her reading. Selwyn and his retainers gave a little time to the recovery of their breaths. Finally Selwyn braced himself to his task.
"I met that old humbug Horrington on the road. He gave me a pretty beastly bit of news." Mrs. Selwyn again looked over the top of her book. "He told me Jim Power is running a double affair, and is tied up in a knot with a girl somewhere on the river. A good-looking girl, old Horrington said. Probably the girl they joke King about. He says it's all over the place." Mrs. Selwyn shut up her book and laid it in her lap. Next she looked severely at the flooring of the verandah. "Beastly nuisance!" Selwyn followed up again feebly.
"Was he quite certain of his story?"
"Seemed infernally sure of it."
Mrs. Selwyn resumed the study of the flooring. After a moment or two she said—"I feel most unwell. I think at least you might have had the decency to keep it from me."