I--I'm exceedingly distressed about it." "Oh, there's no need to be--no need at all.

It was rather a joke," Sir James protested quickly.
"But blackmailing isn't a joke--though of course they didn't realize what a serious thing it is--" "It was the Douglases doing it," broke in the Terror in an explanatory tone.
"I don't think you ought to have given way to them, Sir James," said Mrs.Dangerfield severely.
"But I hadn't any choice, I assure you.

They had me in a cleft stick," protested Sir James.
"Well then you ought to have come straight to me," said Mrs.
Dangerfield.
"Oh, but really--a little fishing--what is a little fishing?
I couldn't come bothering you about a thing like that," protested Sir James.
"But it isn't a little thing if you get it like that," said Mrs.
Dangerfield.

"Anyhow, it's going to stop; and they're going to apologize." She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one voice: "I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James." The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came very stiffly from the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air.
"Oh, not at all--not at all--don't mention it.

Besides, I owe you an apology for not answering your letter," said Sir James in all the discomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due.