“Of course, my dear chap.  If one lives in a hole like Bridetown, one must expect one’s affairs to be common property.”

“And if they are, what does it matter as long as they are all straightforward?  I never care a button what anybody says about me, because I know they can’t say anything true that is up against me; and as to lies, they don’t matter.”

“And d’you think I care what they say about me?”

“Rather not.  Only if a girl is involved, then the case is altered.  I’m not a saint; but—­”

“When anybody says they’re not a saint, you know they’re going to begin to preach, Arthur.”

Waldron did not answer for a minute.  He stopped and lighted his pipe.  To Raymond, Sabina appeared unmeasurably distant at this midnight hour.  His volatile mind was quick to take colour from the last experience, and in the aura of the smoking concert, woman looked a slight and inferior thing; marriage, a folly; domestic life, a jest.

Waldron spoke again.

“You won’t catch me preaching.  I only venture to say that in a little place like this, it’s a mistake to be identified with a girl beneath you in every way.  It won’t hurt you, and if she was a common girl and given to playing about, it wouldn’t hurt her; but the Dinnetts are different.  However, you know a great deal more about her than I do, and if you tell me she’s not all she seems and you’re not the first and won’t be the last, then, of course I’m wrong and enough said.  But if she’s all right and all she’s thought to be, and all Estelle thinks her—­for Estelle’s a jolly good student of character—­then, frankly, I don’t think it’s sporting of you to do what you’re doing.”

The word ‘sporting’ summed the situation from Waldron’s point of view and he said no more.

Raymond grew milder.

“She’s all Estelle thinks her.  I have a great admiration for her.  She’s amazingly clever and refined.  In fact, I never saw any girl a patch on her in my life.”

“Well then, what follows?  Surely she ought to be respected in every way.”

“I do respect her.”

“Then it’s up to you to treat her as you’d treat anybody of your own class, and take care that nothing you do throws any shadow on her.  And, of course, you know it.  I’m not suggesting for a second you don’t.  I’m only suggesting that what would be quite all right with a girl in your own set, isn’t exactly fair to Sabina—­her position in the world being what it is.”

It was on Raymond’s tongue to declare his engagement; but he did not.  He had banished Sabina for that night and the subject irked him.  The justice of Waldron’s criticism also irked him; but he acknowledged it.

“Thank you,” he answered.  “It’s jolly good of you to say these things, Arthur, because they’re not in your line, and I know you hate them.  But you’re dead right.  I dare say I’ll tell you something that will astonish you before long.  But I’m not doing anything to be ashamed of.  I haven’t made any mistake; and if I had, I shouldn’t shirk the payment.”