“No. She was in the house, but—”
“How did you know that?” She uttered a mystified laugh. “She was there! It was one of the nights she stayed with me when papa and mamma were down here superintending some changes before we could move in. But I never told her anything about it.”
“Why didn’t you—when she was right on the spot?”
“Oh, because.”
The smile disappeared. She stopped looking up at me to turn her eyes toward the foxgloves and scrub-oak.
“Yes? Because—what?”
“Because I promised—that man—I wouldn’t.”
“Why should you have made him such a promise?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Just at the time I was—I was sorry for him.”