"I read your book," she answered, as if this put the blame on him.
"Not very intelligently, then, or you would have done a better fraud."
"You were willing to waste a lot of time on a fraud."
"It hasn't been wasted. And that brings me to my second point. I will now tell you what perhaps you don't know, and that is why you did it."
"I know perfectly well, thank you," replied Evie. "I did it because you were so poisonous about me that afternoon at Aunt Georgy's. I thought I'd like to show you—"
"That is a rationalization," he interrupted, waving it away with one hand. "You did it because you are strongly attracted to me."
"Attracted to you!" said Evie in a most offensive tone.
"I am the panther in the bushes."
Evie laughed contemptuously.
"I knew you'd think you were the panther," she said; "I simply knew it."