Boulte laughed grimly.

'It can't be Captain Kurrell! He told me that he had never taken the
least the least interest in your wife, Mr. Boulte. Oh, do listen! He
said he had not. He swore he had not,' said Mrs. Vansuythen.

The purdah rustled, and the speech was cut short by the entry of a
little thin woman, with big rings round her eyes. Mrs. Vansuythen
stood up with a gasp.

'What was that you said?' asked Mrs. Boulte. 'Never mind that
man. What did Ted say to you? What did he say to you? What did
he say to you?'

Mrs. Vansuythen sat down helplessly on the sofa, overborne by the
trouble of her questioner.

'He said I can't remember exactly what he said but I understood
him to say that is But, really, Mrs. Boulte, isn't it rather a strange
question?'

'Will you tell me what he said?' repeated Mrs. Boulte. Even a tiger
will fly before a bear robbed of her whelps, and Mrs. Vansuythen
was only an ordinarily good woman. She began in a sort of
desperation: 'Well, he said that the never cared for you at all, and,
of course, there was not the least reason why he should have, and
and that was all.'

'You said he swore he had not cared for me. Was that true?'