'Her passion is now for something else, though.'
'What's that?'
'A man.'
'I never saw a girl so indifferent to men as Lady Sinfi.'
'She is living at this moment as the mistress of a cousin of Cyril
Aylwin.'
My blood boiled with rage. I lost all control of myself. I longed to feel his face against my knuckles.
'That's not true,' I said in a rather loud voice.
He started up, and turned round, saying in a hectoring voice, 'What was that you said to me? Will you repeat your words?'
'To repeat one's words,' I said quietly, 'shows a limited vocabulary, so I will put it thus,—what you said just now about Sinfi Lovell being the mistress of Cyril Aylwin's cousin is a lie.'
'You dare to give me the lie, sir? And what the devil do you mean by listening to our conversation?'