When, by way of comforting Jaffery, I criticised Doria's outburst, he fell upon me as though about to devour me alive. After what he had done for her, said I, given up one of the great chances of his career, carried her bodily from London to Nice, and made her a present of a brilliant novel so as to save Adrian's memory from shame, she ought to go on her knees and pray God to shower blessings on his head. As it was, she deserved whipping. Jaffery called me, among other things, an amazing ass--he has an Eastern habit of, facile vituperation--and roared about the drawing-room. The ladies, be it understood, had retired. "You don't seem to grip the elements of the situation. You haven't the intelligence of a rabbit. How in Hades could she know I've written the rotten book? She thinks it's Adrian's. And she thinks I've spoiled it. She's perfectly justified. For the little footling services I rendered her on the journey, she's idiotically grateful--out of all proportion. As for Persia, she knows nothing about it--" "She ought to," said I. "If you tell her, I'll break your neck," roared Jaffery. "All right," said I, desiring to remain whole. "So long as you're satisfied, it doesn't much matter to me." It didn't. After all, one has one's own life to live, and however understanding of one's friends and sympathetically inclined towards them one may be, one cannot follow them emotionally through all their bleak despairs and furious passions. A man doing so would be dead in a week. "It doesn't seem to strike you," he went on, "that the poor girl's mental and moral balance depends on the successful carrying out of this ghastly farce." "I do, my dear chap." "You don't. I wrote the thing as best I could--a labour of love. But it's nothing like Tom Castleton's work--which she thinks is Adrian's. To keep up the deception I had to crab it and say that the faults were mine. Naturally she believes me." "All right," said I, again. "And when the book is published and Adrian's memory flattered and Doria is assured of her mental and moral balance--what then?" "I hope she'll be happy," he answered. "Why the blazes do you suppose I've worried if it wasn't to give her happiness?"