Annoyed by the astonishment and involuntary disapproval in his voice, she drew herself up the least bit. If there was one quality on which Janet Harting prided herself it was her judgment, and she had never allowed any one save her father to criticise a person on whom she chose to bestow her friendship.
“Why not?” she retorted. “I like him very much. Besides, he was the means of saving father and me from a serious accident.”
She went on briefly to tell how the acquaintance had come about, and Lefty listened in frowning silence, gnawing his under lip with firm white teeth.
Perhaps it was just as well that he had been prevented from giving vent to that first natural outburst of indignation which leaped up within him. The discovery that Elgin, of all men, had made the acquaintance and apparently won the liking of this girl filled him with intense anger. The cur wasn’t fit even to speak to her, and in that moment Lefty detested him as never before. Only the impossibility of interrupting Janet kept him from pouring out an impulsive account of what he knew about the scoundrel, and the even more contemptible things he suspected.
But, with the passing of that first throb of anger, Locke felt that this would merely make matters worse. Certain as he was in his own mind of Elgin’s complicity in the plot against himself, he had no real proof, and anything he might say against the man would seem like the product of jealousy.
“He came to call last night,” the girl concluded, “and father was quite charmed with him.” She hesitated an instant, and then went on slowly: “I’m afraid you’re not very good friends, are you, Phil?”
“Oh! You gathered that, did you?” Lefty said stiffly. “I suppose he blackguarded me to beat the band.”
“He did nothing of the sort. He never said a word against you. I simply got the impression from his manner, and thought it was a pity you shouldn’t be on better terms.”
“That’s out of the question,” Lefty retorted shortly. He was perplexed over his inability to let her know exactly what sort of a man Bert Elgin was, and that added no little asperity to his manner. “We could never be friends.”