Ignoring the utterance of this polite hope, she resumed:
‘I have to thank you for the service you rendered on Saturday night.’
‘It was nothing,’ he said, in a voice as cold and formal as her own.
‘It was everything,’ she corrected him gravely. ‘I might have lost my life but for you.’
‘I am happy to have been of any assistance,’ he said. But his thoughts ran: ‘She hasn’t come to London to tell me this. What the deuce, then, has she come for?’
‘Bridget tells me you had an interview with my father that night. May I ask what passed?’ Teresa continued.
‘You have not seen your father since then?’ said Richard.
‘I have not.’ Her voice seemed momentarily to break.
‘Or doubtless he would have told you?’
‘Doubtless.’