"Was it of your own free will, without advice or bias, that you refused the interview I asked you to grant me?"
"It was."
"My cousin influenced you adversely?"
"No, sir."
"He is purely selfish in his course toward——"
"At least it is ungrateful and unbecoming in you to accuse him, and I will not hear you."
She turned her face toward Mr. Chesley, who was carrying on an animated conversation with Mrs. Palma, and some moments elapsed before Elliott resumed:
"Regina, I must see you alone, sometime this evening."
"Why?"
"To demand an explanation of what I have seen and heard,—otherwise I would not credit."