'If you'd been like this,' he told her, 'there wouldn't have been any trouble this afternoon.'
She endorsed the monstrous falsehood readily.
'No, it was all my fault. But I was—so terrified of losing you.'
'You tried to threaten me into it!'
He could not be so deluded as to doubt what she had done. But he wanted the forlorn comfort of a brave face over a beaten heart.
'You threatened me too,' whispered Connie.
She broke away from him and took up her old jaunty attitude—arm on the mantel-piece, foot on the fender—again: there was challenge in the eyes that met his boldly.
'You did want some persuading,' she reminded him.
He laughed. 'Well, Trix Trevalla's a devilish pretty woman—and a bit easier to hold than you.'
'I'm easy enough, if your hand's light. As for her, she'd have worried you to death. She'd have hated you, Beaufort.'