"All mothers are sacred," suggested the doctor quietly.

Hugh seemed not to hear him.

"How long is this pretence to go on, Lancaster?" he demanded irritably.

"What pretence?"

"This pretence that nothing is changed--nothing altered--between my wife
and myself?"

"For ever, I hope. So that, after all, there will have been no
pretence."

But the appeal of the speech was ineffectual. Hugh looked at the other
man unmoved.

"It's no use hoping that you and I can see things from the same
standpoint," he added stubbornly. "I've made my decision--laid down
the lines of our future life together. I'm only waiting till you, as a
medical man, tell me that Diane's health is sufficiently restored for me
to inform her."

"No woman is ever in such health that you can break her heart with
impunity."

Hugh's light-grey eyes gleamed like steel.

"Will you answer my question?" he said curtly.