‘Lord Rex Basire seems to have called. His card was lying this morning on the parlour table.’
‘And you have no wider sympathies, Dinah, no desire to know how we, miserable deserters, got along in Alderney?’
‘I like, of course, to hear everything that concerns you.’
Dinah accentuated the pronoun stoutly.
‘Although you had not sufficient curiosity to meet me when I landed?’
As Gaston thus adroitly harked back upon his grievance his wife’s eyes sank. She turned from him with a movement of impatience.
‘The moment the steamer was signalled I got ready, Gaston. I went straight down to the pier road and watched her come into harbour. Oh, you never saw me,’ Dinah added quickly. ‘I was standing behind some piles of timber at the entrance to the pier, a hundred yards distant. And when I saw you and the Thornes land together, I felt certain you would walk with them to their house, and I lost courage and got away.’
‘To avoid the deadly risk of saying good-morning to Mrs. Thorne and the Doctor?’
‘I—I remembered there were no strawberries for breakfast,’ she stammered, determined upon not giving him fresh offence, ‘no roses to last us until to-morrow. Don’t you see,’ holding out her hands, which trembled a little, ‘I have been marketing?’
‘Alone? But I need hardly ask the question. You always do your marketing alone.’