"In this instance," he returned quite quietly, "it's the part that shows which matters--only the part that shows. If I were doing this thing secretly I should be reckoned decent living, and be well considered of my fellows. And it would never have offended your susceptibilities, nor disgusted other women whose feelings I have not a jot of respect for. You simply wouldn't have known... It appears to me that it is the part that shows which means everything." She answered nothing. She sat still, watching him, with her fine eyes clouded and disapproving, and her lips closed in a thin, determined line of scarlet that looked the more brilliant because of the set whiteness of her face. He swung round suddenly and faced her. "I might have anticipated this," he said. "But, oddly enough, I never took you into consideration. After all, you've a right to complain... The same name! ... Yes, it's awkward--very... and unpleasant." He crossed the room and stood in front of her chair, looking down at her with an almost hostile expression in his sombre eyes. "In your opinion," he asked, a hard resentment in his voice, "is there any reason why I should especially consider you?" She looked back at him steadily. "Have I not already acknowledged that my interference is unjustifiable?" "True!" he allowed, and thought for a moment. "One condition alone would give you any right to take exception at anything I do," he added--"and that is such an unlikely condition that we need not reckon it in... But, however dead I may be to all sense of honour and decency, I have still sufficient perception to realise that the situation is--uncomfortable for you. It shall cease to annoy you. I leave Cape Town this week." The expression of glad hopefulness that had momentarily lighted her eyes died out as suddenly as it had kindled. She understood him perfectly. Because this thing was humiliating to her he was going to remove it from her path. That much he would concede--and that was all. "You are going away?" she said in a low voice, leaning towards him.--"And you will take your mistress with you?" "And I take my mistress with me," he answered firmly... "Yes."