Part 6 (2/2)

Grey was sitting at the other side of the table, looking through a book of flies. He appeared to be quite unmoved by the sudden entry of the infuriated n.o.bleman, or by his raucous bellow:

”So here you are, you infernal scoundrel!”

He looked at him with a cold, distasteful eye, and said in a clear, very unpleasant voice: ”Another time knock before you come into my room.”

Lord Loudwater had not expected to be received in this fas.h.i.+on; dimly he had seen Grey cowering.

He paused, then said less loudly: ”Knock? Hey? Knock? Knock at the door of an infernal scoundrel like you?” His voice began to gather volume again. ”Likely I should take the trouble! I know all about your scoundrelly game.”

Colonel Grey remembered that Olivia had said that she proposed to deny the kiss, and his course was quite clear to him.

”I don't know whether you're drunk, or mad,” he said in a quiet, contemptuous voice.

This again was not what Lord Loudwater had expected. But Grey was a strong believer in the theory that the attacker has the advantage, and he had an even stronger belief that an enemy in a fury is far less dangerous than an enemy calm.

”You're lying! You know I'm neither!” bellowed Lord Loudwater. ”You kissed Olivia--Lady Loudwater--in the East wood. You know you did. You were seen doing it.”

”You're raving, man,” said Colonel Grey quietly, in a yet more unpleasant tone.

The interview was not going as Lord Loudwater had seen it. He had to swallow violently before he could say: ”You were seen doing it! Seen! By one of my gamekeepers!”

”You must have paid him to say so,” said Colonel Grey with quiet conviction.

Lord Loudwater was a little staggered by the accusation. He gasped and stuttered: ”D-D-d.a.m.n your impudence! P-P-Paid to say it!”

”Yes, paid,” said Colonel Grey, without raising his voice. ”You happened to hear that we had tea in the pavilion in the wood--probably from Lady Loudwater herself--and you made up this stupid lie and paid your gamekeeper to tell it in order to score off her. It's exactly the dog's trick a bullying ruffian like you would play a woman.”

”D-D-Dog's trick? Me?” stammered Lord Loudwater, gasping.

He was used to saying things of this kind to other people; not to have them said to him.

”Yes, you. You know that you're a wretched bully and cad,” said Colonel Grey, with just a little more warmth in his tone.

Had Lord Loudwater's belief that William Roper had told him the truth about the kiss been weaker, it might have been shaken by the whole-hearted thoroughness of Grey's attack. But William Roper had impressed that belief on him deeply. He was sure that Grey had kissed Lady Loudwater.

The certainty spurred him to a fresh effort, and he cried: ”It's no good your trying to humbug me--none at all. I've got evidence--plenty of evidence! And I'm going to act on it, too. I'm going to hound you out of the Army and that jade of a wife of mine out of decent society. Do you think, because I don't spend four or five months every year in that rotten hole, London, I haven't got any influence? Hey? If you do, you're d.a.m.n well wrong. I've got more than enough twice over to clear a scoundrel like you out of the Army.”

”Don't talk absurd nonsense!” said Grey calmly.

”Nonsense? Hey? Absurd nonsense?” howled Lord Loudwater on a new note of exasperation.

”Yes, nonsense. A disreputable cad like you can't hurt me in any way, and well you know it,” said Grey with painstaking distinctness.

”Not hurt you? Hey? I can't hurt the corespondent in a divorce case?

Hey?” said Lord Loudwater rather breathlessly.

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