“I know by the hair,” I answered. “I might have foreseen this would be the kind of thing you would think of—it’s like you.”
“You ought to be grateful to me for thinking of it,” said Lisa. “It’s entirely for your sake; and it’s quite true, it was an inspiration to come here. This afternoon in the train I read an interview in ‘Femina’ with Maxine de Renzie, about the new play she’s produced to-night. There was a picture of her, and a description of her house in the Rue d’Hollande.”
“Now you have satisfied your curiosity. You’ve seen her back, and her maid’s back, and the garden wall,” I said, more sharply than I often speak to Lisa. “I shall tell the driver to take us to the hotel at once. I know why you want to wait here, but you shan’t—I won’t. I’m going away as quickly as I can.”
She caught my dress as I would have leaned out to speak to the driver. Her manner had suddenly changed, and she was all softness and sweetness, and persuasiveness.
“Di, dearest girl, don’t be cross with me; please don’t misunderstand,” she implored. “I love you, you know, even if you sometimes think I don’t; I want you to be happy—oh, wait a moment, and listen. I’ve been so miserable all day, knowing you were miserable; and I’ve felt horribly guilty for fear, after all, I’d said too much. Of course if you’d guessed where I meant to come, you wouldn’t have stirred out of the hotel, and it was better for you to see for yourself. Unless Ivor Dundas came here with a motor-cab, as we did, he could hardly have arrived yet, so if he does come, we shall know. If he doesn’t come, we shall know, too. Think how happy you’ll feel if he doesn’t! I’ll apologise to you then, frankly and freely; and I suppose you would not mind apologising to him, if necessary?”
“He may be in the house now,” I said, more to myself than to Lisa.
“If he is, he’ll come out and meet her when he hears the gate open. There, it’s open now. The maid’s unlocked it. No, there’s nobody in the garden.”
“I can’t stop here and watch for him, like a spy,” I said.
“Not like a spy, but like a girl who thinks she may have done a man an injustice. It’s for his sake I ask you to stay. And if you won’t, I must stay alone. If you insist on going away, I’ll get out and stand in the street, either until Ivor Dundas has come, or until I’m sure he isn’t coming. But how much better to wait and see for yourself.”
“You know I can’t go off and leave you standing here,” I answered. “And I can’t leave you sitting in the carriage, and walk through the streets alone. I might meet—” I would not finish my sentence, but Lisa must nave guessed the name on my lips.