e What I have more briefly told you. She said that the worry and the
humiliation of it, and the strain of trying to keep up appearances
before the world, were telling upon her, and she asked for my advice. I
said I thought she should face him and demand an explanation of his way
of treating her. But she would not do that. She had always taken
the line of affecting not to notice the change in his demeanour,
and nothing, I knew, would persuade her to admit to him that she was
injured, once pride had led her into that course. Life is quite full, my
dear Trent,' said Mr. Cupples with a sigh, 'of these obstinate silences
and cultivated misunderstandings.'

'Did she love him?' Trent enquired abruptly. Mr. Cupples did not reply
at once. 'Had she any love left for him?' Trent amended.

Mr. Cupples played with his teaspoon. 'I am bound to say,' he answered
slowly, 'that I think not. But you must not misunderstand the woman,
Trent. No power on earth would have persuaded her to admit that to any
one--even to herself, perhaps--so long as she considered herself bound
to him. And I gather that, apart from this mysterious sulking of late,
he had always been considerate and generous.'

'You were saying that she refused to have it out with him.'

'She did,' replied Mr. Cupples. 'And I knew by experience that it was
quite useless to attempt to move a Domecq where the sense of dignity
was involved. So I thought it over carefully, and next day I watched my
opportunity and met Manderson as he passed by this hotel. I asked him
to favour me with a few minutes' conversation, and he stepped inside
the gate down there. We had held no communication of any kind since my
niece's marriage, but he remembered me, of course. I put the matter to
him at once and quite definitely. I told him what Mabel had confided
to me. I said that I would neither approve nor condemn her action
in bringing me into the business, but that she was suffering, and I
considered it my right to ask how he could justify himself in placing
her in such a position.'

'And how did he take that?' said Trent, smiling secretly at the
landscape. The picture of this mildest of men calling the formidable
Manderson to account pleased him.

'Not very well,' Mr. Cupples replied sadly. 'In fact, far from well. I
can tell you almost exactly what he said--it wasn't much. He said,
"See here, Cupples, you don't want to butt in. My wife can look after
herself. I've found that out, along with