"I simply, and by the merest chance," he complained to his sister, "happened to touch her near the shoulder, and you saw for yourself how she treated me. I shall go off and get a drink, and leave you both to clear it up as best you can. Serves her right!" He repeated this remark several times, with additions, as he stamped out of the room.
"My brother," said Lady Douglass, "is peculiar in his manners."
"I haven't met his sort before."
"But I wonder you did not know better than to trust yourself with him. Fortunately, you can rely upon me to say nothing about the affair. It would have been very unlucky if someone else had happened to come to the door."
"I don't particularly like being under any sort of obligation to you."
"We won't say anything more about it," ordered the other. "I have an enormous objection to a scandal."
"You're not alone in that respect," she retorted.
"And we will of course avoid all references to Wormwood Scrubbs."
"I don't know what you mean by that!"
The tennis folk, after they had replayed their games over the tea-table, left; Gertie was quiet, and her cousin inquired anxiously whether anything had occurred. Clarence urged her to keep up courage, declaring she had managed admirably up to the present.