Trix might be high and mighty, but the assumption of this manner hid a very sore heart. If what she was now told were true, the last and greatest burden had not been taken away, and still she was shamed. But this inner mind could not be guessed from her demeanour.
'We've been good friends, Mr. Trent,' she began, 'and I have to thank you for much kindness——'
'Not at all. That's all right, really, Mrs. Trevalla.'
'But I'm forced to ask you,' she continued with overriding imperturbability, 'by what right you concern yourself in my affairs?'
Tommy had a temper, and rather a quick one. He had been a good deal vexed lately too. In his heart he thought that rather too much fuss had been occasioned by and about Mrs. Trevalla; this was, perhaps, one of the limitations of sympathy to which lovers are somewhat subject.
'I don't,' he answered rather curtly.
'Oh, I suppose you're in the plot to deceive me!' she flashed out.
If he were, it was very indirectly, and purely as a business man. He had been asked whether the law could reach Fricker, and had been obliged to answer that it could not. He had been told subsequently to raise money on certain securities. That was his whole connection with the matter.
'But don't you think you were taking a liberty—an enormous liberty? You'll say it was kindness. Well, I don't dispute your motive, but it was presumption too.' Trix's disappointment was lashing her into a revenging fury. 'What right had you to turn me into a beggar, to make me take your money, to think I'd live on your charity?' She flung the question at him with a splendid scorn.
Tommy wrinkled his brow in hopeless perplexity.