"No."

"Then you know it now. That is what Blanche has just said to me."

"Well?"

"Well--there's a limit to what a man can expect even from his best
friend. I hope you won't ask me to be Blanche's messenger to-morrow. I
can't, and won't, go back to the inn as things are now."

"You have had enough of it--eh?"

"I have had enough of distressing Miss Silvester, and more than enough
of deceiving Blanche."

"What do you mean by 'distressing Miss Silvester?'"

"She doesn't take the same easy view that you and I do, Geoffrey, of my
passing her off on the people of the inn as my wife."

Geoffrey absently took up a paper-knife. Still with his head down, he
began shaving off the topmost layer of paper from the blotting-pad under
his hand. Still with his head down, he abruptly broke the silence in a
whisper.

"I say!"

"Yes?"