Cluny could not be dishonest, though he would try hard not to say painful things.
"Well, she was a bit fierce at first--she's a woman, you know; but afterwards she went like a baby; cried, and wouldn't stay at Cannes any longer: so we're back in town.

We're going down to the country, though, to-morrow or next day." "Do you think I had better call, Cluny ?" Gaston ventured suggestively.
"Yes, yes, of course," Cluny replied, with great eagerness, as if to justify the matter to himself.

Gaston smiled, said that he might,--he was only in town for a few days, and dropped Cluny in Pall Mall.

Cluny came running back.
"I say, Belward, things'll come around just as they were before, won't they?
You're going to cut in, and not let 'em walk on you ?" "Yes, I'm 'going to cut in,' Cluny boy." Cluny brightened.
"And of course it isn't all over with Delia, is it ?" He blushed.
Gaston reached out and dropped a hand on Cluny's shoulder.
"I'm afraid it is all over, Cluny." Cluny spoke without thinking.
"I say, it's rough on her, isn't it ?" Then he was confused, hurriedly offered Gaston a cigarette, a hasty good-bye was said, and they parted.

Gaston went first to Lord Faramond.
He encountered inquisition, cynical humour, flashes of sympathy, with a general flavour of reproach.