your credit. How long have you been living with Valerie?”
“You mean, am I living with Valerie? Well, Carr, I once heard you say that was an unfair and impertinent question outside a court of law, and that it should never any case be asked of a man, as he had no right to speak for the woman concerned. I agreed with you at the time and I still do.”
For a moment Dane thought the other man was going to strike him as he lay, but he kept still, looking him fair in in the eyes.
“Barrington, will you get out of that damned thing! I can’t talk to you while you lie there like a woman. Get up!”
“Well, if I get out of this thing we’ll go out on the road. I repeat this is my house, and you can’t dictate to me whether I shall sit or stand. And I always use this hammock when I’m out here. Now will you please say what you came to say. I’m anxious to have it over before Valerie comes, and for God’s sake, Carr, be careful what you say to her.”
“Be careful what I say to her!” The moment would have been critical for an apoplectic man. “By God, you are a grim humourist!”
“I don’t mean to be funny, I assure you. But I repeat it. You know what advice and interference do to her. They seem to give her inflammation of the brain. You see she is not a person moved merely by impulse; she has the fanaticism of strong conviction.”
“Oh, the deuce! Anyone can make a conviction out of an impulse.”
“I don’t doubt that has been your method, my dear Carr, but it is not your daughter’s. I know a thoroughbred conviction when I see it and she is full of them. I
