Yes, it _was_ true, and what next?
The girl had waylaid him, begged him to intercede for her with his wife.

Of course it would have been better to come home and reveal the matter; he didn't do so because it seemed to put him in a silly position.
For Heaven's sake, let the whole absurd business be forgotten and done with! Emmeline, though not sufficiently enlightened to be above small jealousies, would have been ashamed to declare her feeling with the energy of unsophisticated female nature.

She replied coldly and loftily that the matter, of course, _was_ done with; that it interested her no more; but that she could not help regretting an instance of secretiveness such as she had never before discovered in her husband.

Surely he had put himself in a much sillier position, as things turned out, than if he had followed the dictates of honour.
'The upshot of it is this,' cried Mumford: 'Miss Derrick has to leave the house, and, if necessary, I shall tell her so myself.' Again Emmeline was cold and lofty.

There was no necessity whatever for any further communication between Clarence and Miss Derrick.