“Is it?” said Stone, and they went on.
At the sanatorium they found Estelle. She was not hysterical now, but was in a sort of apathetic mood, and listless of manner.
Stone spoke to her with polite address, and a manner distinctly reassuring.
“It will be much better for you, Estelle,” he said, pleasantly, “if you will speak the truth. Better for you, and better for——you know whom.”
His significant tone roused her, “I don’t know who you mean,” she exclaimed.
“Oh, yes, you do! somebody whose name begins with H, or B, or S.”
“I don’t know any one beginning with S,” and Estelle frowned defiantly.
“But some one with——” Stone leaned forward, and in the tense pause that followed, Estelle’s lips half formed a silent ‘B’.
“Yes,” went on Stone, as if he had not paused. “If you will tell the whole truth, it will be better for Bates in the long run.”
Estelle began to tremble. “What do you know?” she cried out, and showed signs of hysteria.