Delaine must be told that the story was true, and would no doubt think himself entitled to act upon it.

The protest on behalf of Lady Merton implied already in his manner that afternoon was humiliating enough.

The smart of it was still tingling through Anderson's being.

He had till now felt a kind of instinctive contempt for Delaine as a fine gentleman with a useless education, inclined to patronise "colonists." The two men had jarred from the beginning, and at Banff, Anderson had both divined in him the possible suitor of Lady Merton, and had also become aware that Delaine resented his own intrusion upon the party, and the rapid intimacy which had grown up between him and the brother and sister.
Well, let him use his chance! if it so pleased him.

No promise whatever should be asked of him; there should be no suggestion even of a line of action.