‘So far, you have heard the truth.  What have you to ask of me, now?’

‘You have been abroad for a long time, I think?’

‘For about a year.’

‘Does that mean that you wished to see no more of her?’

‘That I deserted her, in plain words?  It meant nothing of the kind.’

’You are aware, then, that she has taken a place in a house of business, just as if she thought it necessary to earn her own living?’

Tarrant displayed astonishment.

‘I am aware of no such thing.  How long has that been going on?’

‘Then you don’t see her?’

‘I have seen her, but she told me nothing of that.’

’There’s something very strange in this, Mr. Tarrant.  You seem to me to be speaking the truth.  No, please don’t take offence.  Before I saw you, you were a total stranger to me, and after what I had heard, I couldn’t think very well of you.  I may as well confess that you seem a different kind of man from what I expected.  I don’t wish to offend you, far from it.  If we can talk over this distressing affair in a friendly way, so much the better.  I have nothing whatever in view but to protect my niece—­to do the best that can be done for her.’

‘That I have taken for granted,’ Tarrant replied.  ’I understand that you expected to meet a scoundrel of a very recognisable type.  Well, I am not exactly that.  But what particular act of rascality have you in mind?  Something worse than mere seduction, of course.’

‘Will you answer a disagreeable question?  Are you well-to-do?’

‘Anything but that.’

’Indeed?  And you can form no idea why Nancy has gone to work in a shop?’

Tarrant raised his eyebrows.

‘I see,’ he said deliberately.  ’You suspect that I have been taking money from her?’

‘I did suspect it; now it seems to me more unlikely.’

‘Many thanks,’ he answered, with cold irony.  ’So the situation was this:  Miss.  Lord had been led astray by a rascally fellow, who not only left her to get on as best she could, but lived on her income, so that she had at length to earn money for her own needs.  There’s something very clear and rounded, very dramatic, about that.  What I should like to know is, whether Miss.  Lord tells the story in this way.’

’I can’t say that she does.  I think it was Mr. Crewe who explained things like that.’

’I am obliged to Mr. Crewe.  But he may, after all, only repeat what he has heard.  It’s a pity we don’t know Miss.  Lord’s actual confidante.’

‘Of course you have not received assistance from her?’

Tarrant stared for a moment, then laughed unpleasantly.

‘I have no recollection of it.’

’Another disagreeable question.  Did you really go away and leave her to get on as best she could?’

He looked darkly at her.

‘And if I did?’

‘Wasn’t it rather unaccountable behaviour—­in a gentleman?’