"I thought the best plan," he said, "was to have it out without any waste of time."
"Oh dear!" murmured Carrissima. "Have what out?"
"I am going to speak quite plainly——"
"Why in the world shouldn't you?"
"I want to know," said Mark, "why you—of all people—told Sybil
Clynesworth—well, what you did tell her?"
"What did I?" asked Carrissima.
"It amounts to this. That I have been acting like a pretty miserable humbug and scoundrel combined."
"Mark!" faltered Carrissima, "I didn't. I couldn't have said anything of the sort."
"Then Sybil deliberately invented the story!"
"But what—what story?" said Carrissima.